Nancy Willard
Nancy Willard was an acclaimed American poet and author known for her contributions to both children's and adult literature. Born into a family that fostered her artistic talents, she began writing poetry at a young age, ultimately publishing her first poem at just seven years old. Willard pursued higher education rigorously, earning her degrees from the University of Michigan and Stanford University, where she researched medieval folk songs. After marrying photographer Eric Lindbloom, she transitioned to children's literature, inspired by her experience as a mother.
Her breakthrough work, *A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers*, won the Newbery Medal in 1982, marking a significant milestone in children's poetry. Willard's writing often featured magical transformations and drew inspiration from art and folklore, collaborating with various prominent illustrators throughout her career. She also wrote extensively for adults, producing poetry, fiction, and essays on the craft of writing. Willard continued to publish new works until her retirement from teaching at Vassar College in 2013, leaving behind a rich legacy in literature when she passed away in 2017.
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Nancy Willard
- Born: June 26, 1936
- Birthplace: Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Died: February 19, 2017
- Place of death: Poughkeepsie, New York
Biography
Events in poet Nancy Willard’s early life foreshadowed the lifelong interests and successes she would experience in later years as a writer for both children and adults. Both Willard’s father, Hobart Hurd Willard, who was a distinguished chemistry professor, and her mother, Margaret (Sheppard) Willard, encouraged her intellectual, literary, and artistic interests. Willard recalls spending long, lazy summers at a lake in Michigan, where her mother read classics of children’s literature to Nancy and her sister and where the two girls developed their artistic and storytelling skills by creating a summer newspaper. Willard displayed her talent at an early age, publishing her first poem at the age of seven, and publishing a poem and an illustration for Horn Book magazine while she was in high school.
Willard entered the honors English program at the University of Michigan, where she completed a BA in 1958. For her MA at Stanford University in 1960, she did research on medieval folk songs. She earned her PhD at the University of Michigan in 1963. Willard married the photographer Eric Lindbloom in 1964, with whom she had one son, James. She accepted a position as a lecturer in English at Vassar College in 1965, where she taught creative writing. She was also an instructor at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Much of Willard’s early career was devoted to poetry and fiction for adults, but the birth of her son inspired her to turn to writing for children, where she quickly made her mark. Her first children’s book, Sailing to Cythera, and Other Anatole Stories, won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Her work is characterized by innovative magical transformations of everyday objects and of real people and events.
Perhaps the high point of Willard’s career as a writer for children came in 1982 when she won both the Newbery Medal and a Caldecott Honor Book citation for A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers, the first book of poetry to win the Newbery. The book, with pictures by veteran illustrators Alice and Martin Provensen, works variations on the themes and images of William Blake’s poetry to create a series of imaginative, original, and powerful poems.
Later books found inspiration in art (in the 1991 Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymous Bosch) and in folk literature (the 1993 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). The list of illustrators of Willard’s books includes many prominent children’s artists. These collaborations have produced a rich contribution to children’s literature.
In addition to her children’s books, Willard continued to write poetry and fiction for adults, and, in 1993, collected a series of essays on writing, Telling Time: Angels, Ancestors, and Stories. In the twenty-first century, she published children's books that included The Moon & Riddles Diner and the Sunnyside Café (2001), Sweep Dreams (2005), The Flying Bed (2007), and The Three Mouths of Little Tom Drum (2015) as well as poetry collections such as In the Salt Marsh (2004), Diana in Sight (2009), and The Sea at Truro (2012). In 2008, she published a collection of essays titled The Left-Handed Story: Writing and the Writer's Life. Willard’s papers reside in both the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota and in the Special Collections of the University of Michigan.
Willard had continued to write after retiring from her teaching position at Vassar College in 2013. She died on February 19, 2017, at her home in Poughkeepsie, New York, at the age of eighty.
Bibliography
McLoone, Juli. "Nancy Willard: Writer and Artist." University of Michigan Library, 21 Aug. 2017, www.lib.umich.edu/blogs/beyond-reading-room/nancy-willard-writer-and-artist. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.
"Nancy Willard." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nancy-willard. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.
Roberts, Sam. "Nancy Willard, Prolific Children's Book Author, Dies at 80." The New York Times, 6 Mar. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/books/nancy-willard-dead-author.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.
Sharp, Ronald A. "In Memoriam: Nancy Willard." Kenyon Review, www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/in-memoriam-3/selections/in-memoriam-nancy-willard/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.
Willard, Nancy. "From the Archive: 'The Writer's Ark,' by Nancy Willard." Michigan Quarterly Review, 1997, www.michiganquarterlyreview.com/2017/09/from-the-archive-the-writers-ark-by-nancy-willard/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.