Nancy Willard

Nancy Willard (born June 26, 1936, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an award-winning children's author, poet, and novelist. In 1982, she received the Newbery Medal for A Visit to William Blake's Inn. She lives currently lives in Poughkeepsie, New York where she lectures at Vassar College.

Biography

She was educated at the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award five times and received her B.A. and Ph.D. She also studied at Stanford University, where she received her M.A.

Her first novel, Things Invisible to See (1985), is set in her home town of Ann Arbor in the 1940s; two brothers become involved with a paralyzed young woman, and it "ends with a baseball game that anticipates the film Field of Dreams in its player lineup of baseball luminaries. Susan Fromberg Schaeffer said the novel "has the quality of a fairy tale ... a paradigm of life as a Manichean conflict between good and evil.'"

Awards

• Devins Award for Poetry, 1967
• O. Henry Award, 1970
• Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1979
• Newbery Medal, 1982
• National Endowment for the Arts, Literature Fellowship, 1976 and 1987

Selected bibliography

Children's literature

• Sailing to Cythera and other Anatole Stories - Book One of the Anatole Trilogy (1974)
• The Merry History of a Christmas Pie: With a Delicious Description of a Christmas Soup (1974)
• The Snow Rabbit (1975)
• The Well-Mannered Balloon (1976)
• Shoes Without Leather (1976)
• Simple Pictures Are Best (1977)
• Strangers' Bread (1977)
• The Highest Hit (1978)
• The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole - Book Two of the Anatole Trilogy (1979), Lewis Carroll Shelf Award recipient
• Papa's Panda (1979)
• The Marzipan Moon (1981)
• A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers (1981), Newbery Medal recipient
• Uncle Terrible: More Adventures of Anatole - Book Three of the Anatole Trilogy (1982)
• The Nightgown of the Sullen Moon (1983)
• Night Story (1986)
• The Voyage of the Ludgate Hill: Travels with Robert Louis Stevenson (1987)
• The Mountains of Quilt (1987)
• Firebrat (1988)
• East of the Sun and West of the Moon: A Play (1989)
• Ballad of Biddy Early (1989)
• The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake (1990)
• Pish, Posh Said Hieronymus Bosch (1991)
• Beauty and the Beast (1992)
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1993)
• A Starlit Somersault Downhill (1993)
• An Alphabet of Angels, (1994, also illus.)
• Gutenberg's Gift (1995)
• Among Angels, with Jane Yolen (1995)
• The Good-Night Blessing Book, (1996, also illus.)
• Cracked Corn and Snow Ice Cream: A Family Almanac (1997)
• The Magic Cornfield, (1997, also illus.)
• The Tortilla Cat (1998)
• The Tale I Told Sasha (1999)
• Shadow Story (1999)
• The Moon & Riddles Diner and the Sunnyside Cafe (2001)
• Cinderella's Dress (2003)
• The Mouse, the Cat, and Grandmother's Hat (2003)
• The Tale of Paradise Lost: Based on the Poem by John Milton (2004)
• Sweep Dreams (2005)
• The Flying Bed (2007)
• A Starlit Snowfall (2011)

Poetry

• In His Country (1966)
• Skin of Grace (1967)
• A New Herball (1968)
• Carpenter of the Sun (1974)
• 19 Masks for the Naked Poet (1984)
• Household Tales of Moon and Water (1987)
• Water Walker (1989)
• Poem Made of Water (1992)
• Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems (1996)
• In the Salt Marsh (2004)
• Diana in Sight (2009)

Fiction

• The Lively Anatomy of God: Stories (1968)
• Childhood of the Magician (1973)
• Things Invisible to See (1985)
• Sister Water (1993)
• The Doctrine of the Leather-Stocking Jesus: Collected Stories (2007)

External links

• Poetry Foundation Biography
• Nancy Willard's Bio at Vassar College