About Nicole

Nicole Limón writes stories about ambitious girls, complicated families, longing, and the people who teach us how to survive. She comes from a family of storytellers. Her grandmother filled her childhood with stories about growing up on a small ranch in the mountains of Jalisco, while her father told his story through paintings, sketches, and quiet reflections on immigrating to the United States as a child. They did not always have an easy relationship, but they found their way to each other through stories and long Saturdays at the library. He would sit with his sketchpad while she wandered the stacks carrying more books than she could finish. Somewhere in those afternoons, she began to believe storytelling belonged to her too.

In high school, she joined creative writing club and wrote stories inspired by her grandmother's East Oakland rose garden, a place full of wandering chickens, stubborn rose bushes, and eleven tabby cats stretched across the dirt in the sun. She later earned her degree from University of California, Davis and a Master of Public Health in Health and Social Behavior from University of California, Berkeley, where romance novels became both an escape and a lifeline during burnout. Falling in love with the genre also made her realize how rarely Latine characters were allowed softness, joy, and messy complicated love stories.

She now works as a data analyst while writing fiction in the early mornings, late at night, and whenever she can. She is part of the Hayward Public Library East Bay Writers Circle and attends a regular writing workshop. As a survivor of sexual assault, she found romance writing grounding, healing, and deeply empowering.

Her debut novel draws from her experience running cross country and explores the joy and loneliness of being a young woman of color in sports. She writes under the pen name Nicole Limón, combining her middle name with her grandmother's maiden name. Storytelling runs in her family. She just happens to be the first one writing romance.