Nancy Willard

Nancy Willard (born June 26, 1936) is a novelist, poet, and children's author and occasional illustrator. Her 1981 collection of poems, A Visit to William Blake's Inn, won the Newbery Medal as that year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.

Biography
Willard was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she later received the B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and won five Hopwood Awards for creative writing. 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.'"

As of 2005, Willard lives in Poughkeepsie, New York where she lectures at Vassar College.

Awards
The first two books of the Anatole trilogy won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1977 and 1979. The University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education from 1958 to 1979 annually named several "all time" books that belong on the same shelf as Alice in Wonderland.


 * Devins Award for Poetry, 1967
 * O. Henry Award, 1970
 * Newbery Medal, 1982
 * National Endowment for the Arts, Literature Fellowship, 1976 and 1987

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)
 * The Sea at Truro (2012)

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)

Nonfiction

 * The Left-handed Story: Writing and the writer's life (2008) —essays

Children's books

 * Sailing to Cythera and other Anatole Stories (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), illustrated by David McPhail —first in the Anatole trilogy
 * 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 (Harcourt, 1979), ill. McPhail —second in the Anatole trilogy
 * Papa's Panda (1979)
 * The Marzipan Moon (1981)
 * A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers (Harcourt, 1981), ill. McPhail —third in the Anatole trilogy
 * 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, by Willard and 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)