Children’s author Dawn Quigley, Ph.D., has always been surrounded by storytellers. So, it’s no wonder she became one herself. Quigley, a citizen of the Turtle Band Tribe of Ojibwe, N.D., is a former K–12 teacher and Indian education program co-director, and a current professor at Midwest University in Minnesota. Her titles include an upper middle grade novel, Apple in the Middle, the Jo Jo Makoons chapter book series, Native American Heroes, and Red Bird Danced, her first novel in verse. Quigley’s upcoming books are Jo Jo Makoons: The Super-Scary Sleep Over (September 16) and a picture book, Aaniin I See Your Light, (illustrated by Nanibah Chacon) coming in 2026. PW spoke with Quigley about her teaching career, what drives her to write stories featuring Native characters, and why she believes there need to be many voices representing Native people.

What did you enjoy the most about working with kids?

I was a K–12 teacher for 18 years in the Minneapolis metro area. I taught everything from kindergarten to ninth grade and focused on English language arts, reading, and literacy. I especially loved teaching middle school kids because they’re becoming young adults, but they can still be goofy and silly. I found that I could have great conversations with them when I would bring in literature—books, short stories, and poems—that they could relate to. I discovered that when young adults could connect with “story” they could better understand themselves, and where they are in the world.

How and why did you decide to transition from teaching kids to pre-service teachers?

During the last two years of my teaching, I became interested in mentoring new teachers in my building. I saw that my non-Native teacher friends were both hesitant and afraid to teach Native curriculum because they didn’t want to do it wrong. And that’s when I thought that maybe there was something to this, and that I was supposed to help prepare pre-service teachers before they entered the classroom. So, I researched how I could teach at this level and bring in culturally relevant teaching with my Native American lens.

Now, with every class that I teach, I bring my experiences, my stories, and various aspects of how to critically analyze Native books in the library and classroom to ensure that they are culturally relevant. I love helping pre-service teachers become licensed teachers—or as we call them “teachers of record”—and take the next step.

How did you start writing books for kids?

I started writing for kids while I was teaching them. When I taught, I always tried to bring in literacy strands to support my emerging readers, and I began doing this in my children’s writing, too. I would count how many words I had in each sentence, how many appropriate vocabulary words I used, and I included a lot of white space. I also decided to write contemporary Native characters.

My first book, Apple in the Middle, is an upper middle grade novel. I started it when I was working as an Indian education program co-director where I worked with kids at an after-school program. The story was inspired by some Native kids who were dealing with family, home, and identity issues. The story also came out of my own middle school angst. I didn't really feel like I fit anywhere or had a lot of friends.

When I first submitted the novel to publishers and received many rejections, I wrote a note to Cynthia Leitich Smith on her author page. And she wrote back! She was very encouraging and invited me to write a piece for her anthology. I eventually published Apple in the Middle with North Dakota University Press. Today, I’ve also published other titles with Heartdrum, and new ones coming out, where Cynthia is an author and curator.

Where did the idea for your Jo Jo Makoons chapter book series come from, and what makes Jo Jo different from other characters?

It all started when Cynthia asked me, “Have you thought about writing a chapter book series with a Native character?” She also told me that it had not been done. My initial answer was that I couldn’t do it, but then ideas started running through my mind. As I write, I feel like I’m Jo Jo’s personal secretary. I like to “watch” what she does in my imagination, and I write it down. She is completely different from me. She is forever seven years old, and has no filter. Jo Jo Makoons: Used-to-Be Best Friend is the first book and came out in 2021, followed by Jo Jo Makoons: Fancy Pants (2022), Jo Jo Makoons: Snow Day (2023), Jo Jo Makoons: Rule School (2024), and Jo Jo Makoons: The Super-Scary Sleeper is coming out in September.

Your title, Red Bird Danced, is your first novel in verse, and has earned a number of starred reviews. How did you create the characters Toma and Ariel?

The summer before I started teaching, I worked in the education room at a Native American housing complex in the Minneapolis area. I loved those students! We would talk about all kinds of things, including options after high school, and I was there for them.

When people think about Native kids, they assume that they all live on reservations in rural places. But Minneapolis has the second largest Native American urban population outside of Los Angeles. And so, I just wanted to write a book about these kids. The novel is told in two voices: Toma and Ariel’s. They each have their own gifts and areas of struggle.

Representation has been front and center in your classroom and in your books. What more would you like people to know about the representation of Native people and their voices?

I want people to know that there are 575 tribal nations and there’s not one way to be Native American. I am from one band and from one tribe, the Turtle Band Tribe of Ojibwe, N.D. I can only speak from my experience. There is not just one voice.

I could not write a book through a Cherokee’s eyes, because I am not Cherokee. I also cannot answer questions for all Native people. I can only speak from my tribal experience, my family understanding, and my lens. I cannot speak for everyone.

What are your hopes for your books and your readers?

I think my greatest hope is that Native students celebrate seeing themselves. I also hope all kids, teachers, and librarians like my books and say, “Oh, my gosh, these are good books—and by the way, the characters happen to be Native.” I wrote these stories for kids to see themselves and to normalize Native American contemporary characters in children’s literature.

I think that we’re seeing an explosion of this, and it’s really important. Like I tell my pre-service teachers, it’s important to teach the history of Native people. But if you just stay in the past, what happens to our students? They start to think that there is only lost land, lost treaties, the loss of children to boarding schools, and the loss of clean water through fracking. We cannot just teach the past. We need to also celebrate that we are still here.

I often ask myself, “What can I do?” And the answer is that I can write books where kids can see themselves, learn something new, and have a great time. Books were some of my greatest teachers as a kid. I hope my books will do the same.