Josephine Nobisso

Author Josephine Joi Nobisso

Josephine Nobisso's first story appeared in a national magazine when she was 18. Since then, she has published 105 books with publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Rizzoli, Houghton Mifflin, Putnam, Scholastic, Orchard, Pauline, Mondo, Green Tiger Press, Berkley/Jove, her own Gingerbread House, numerous EFL publishers in South Korea, and has a book due from Emmaus Road. Her work has been mostly for children and middle-grade readers, in all ages and categories, but she has also published three pseudonymous novels for adults. To date, the author has been published in eleven languages.

Ms. Nobisso has published several articles about writing, and her greatest authorial pride lies in having been acknowledged in eight books by fellow authors, most of whom she edited. She is now retired from public engagements, but each year, for twenty-five years, and to rave evaluations, the author conducted 100 programs: a mix of highly-visual author’s presentations, and innovative writing workshops in "The Nobisso Recommendations: Guiding Students to Write in Their Authentic Voices," part of which comes to life in her Gingerbread House book, Show; Don't Tell! Secrets of Writing.

The author received teaching certification from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and studied languages in Urbino, Italy, and in France and Austria. She speaks several languages passably, and is fluent in Italian, often translating others’ work from that language. The National Catholic Educational Association named her "Distinguished Graduate," and Delta Kappa Gamma—the international society of honored teachers— named her "Friend of Education," for "someone outside the profession who has worked significantly toward improving the educational opportunities of others, and who has given outstanding service to promoting quality education." Ms. Nobisso was named “Distinguished Graduate” by William Floyd High School, and was a nominee for the New York State Library Association’s Knickerbocker Award. Two of her picture books, from Gingerbread House, were shortlisted for The Caldecott Medal.

The author has been a long-standing member of The Author's Guild and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and she co-founded the Long Island Children's Writers and Illustrators group. Ms. Nobisso was appointed to the American Library Association-Children’s Book Council joint committee. For a quarter of a century, she conducted staff development workshops and was a speaker at commencements, college courses, and conferences in the USA and abroad

Born February 9, 1953, in the Bronx, Ms. Nobisso homeschooled her daughter, Maria Nicotra, the Art Director of Gingerbread House, which they founded together when Maria was only fourteen years old. The family lives in a tiny hamlet near Westhampton Beach, on the shores of the East End of Long Island, New York, but now spends much of the year in Italy and Portugal. In that last country, Misses Nobisso and Nicotra have been invested as Honorary Dames into the most ancient papal, royal and chivalric order, Sao Miguel da Ala.

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