Nilsa Rivera, author and editor

Her Step Forward

Nilsa Rivera is an author with a background of over two decades working with families who are homeless or receiving housing subsidy to increase their earned income and reduce their dependency on welfare and rental assistance. As a writer, Nilsa explores gender and diversity issues (including child neglect, domestic violence, homelessness, and sexual abuse). Her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, The Selkie and several other literary journals. It's also been featured at Miami Book Fair's LipService True Stories out Loud Miami, the Writing Class Radio podcast, and at Muses and Music, a multidisciplinary event of the Cream Literary Alliance. Nilsa is also the Editor of The Wardrobe and Doubleback Review. When she's not working or writing, Nilsa can be found reading or working out at the gym with her husband and teenage son.
Thinking back to her most difficult years - as a homeless teenage mom - if Nilsa Rivera could give herself any advice, it would be that “Everything you need is within you. You don’t need to look for love and validation externally; you have all the love and support that you need to do this.”

Drawing on years spent homeless and in survival mode, and the stories of those she met along the way, Nilsa always found comfort in journaling and writing short stories, but it took some convincing before she felt brave enough to share her story with the world. Today, Nilsa’s writing focuses on creating stories where “women are empowered, and able to be the hero of the story, instead of being the victim,” including her current work which tells the story of a young woman who escapes from human trafficking, with the goal to help break down the trafficking cell.

Joining us to share her story, Nilsa talks about working with the homeless for two decades, finding confidence and ignoring negative self talk, and what everyone needs to know about the facts of human trafficking today.