Intelligent, evocative, inclusive stories and pictures
Winona Nelson has a wide-ranging 20-year career as a highly-skilled professional creative. She’s worked in illustration, character design, and concept art for video games and film. Credits include concept art for ”Echo” for Marvel Studios and “The Last of Us Part II” for Naughty Dog; for Wizards of the Coast she’s done Magic card illustration, visual and narrative worldbuilding, and cultural consultation as a writer; in publishing she’s illustrated book covers and picture books for Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, and others; and she illustrated the 90-page independent graphic novel “Artifice” by Alex Woolfson. Her picture book work has garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal.
Since she was a child and felt an acute absence of pop culture depictions of people who look, dress, or act like her, Winona has always been motivated to create empowering representations of women and people from minority backgrounds - Indigenous and LGBTQ2SIA+ characters especially. Winona grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, is queer and Two-Spirit, and is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Ojibwe. She currently resides with her artist husband and 3 cats in rural Pennsylvania.
Please contact Winona directly for project inquiries or to arrange an appearance.
