Nancy Willard

Nancy Willard (June 26, 1936 – February 19, 2017)

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'."

Willard moved to Poughkeepsie, New York in 1964 and married Eric Lindbloom. In 1965 she became first a professor at Vassar College and later a lecturer, giving up her tenure to focus on writing. She retired from Vassar in 2013.

Anatole trilogy

All three volumes of Anatole stories were published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich with illustrations by David McPhail. A collected reissue will be published by New York Review Books’ YA imprint NYRB Kids in November 2018. Sailing to Cythera, and other Anatole Stories (1974) The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole (1979) Uncle Terrible: More Adventures of Anatole (1982)

A Visit to William Blake's Inn A Visit to William Blake's Inn, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, was published by Harcourt Brace in 1981. The text is a collection of poems with prose introduction and epilogue, all by Willard. It features a child's overnight stay at "William Blake's Inn", inhabited by Blake and several wonderful creatures.

Willard won the Newbery Medal for the work and the Provensens were one runner-up for the Caldecott Medal. The two annual awards by professional children's librarians recognize the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature" and "most distinguished American picture book for children". Newbery Medal, 1982 National Endowment for the Arts, Literature Fellowship, 1976 and 1987

Selected works

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) All on a May Morning (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. David 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 ), illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen — winner of the Newbery Medal and runner-up for the Caldecott Medal Among Angels with Jane Yolen (1995) Swimming Lessons: New and Selected Poems (1996) When There Were Trees (Brighton, 1999) The Sea at Truro (2012) Waves (Brighton, 2014), poems and works by three artists Skin of Grace, special edition {Brighton, 2016}

Fiction The Lively Anatomy of God: Stories (1968) Childhood of the Magician (1973) Things Invisible to See (1985) Sister Water (1993)

Nonfiction "Testimony of the Invisible Man" (1970) - essays "Angel in the Parlor: Essays and Stories" (1983) - essays "Telling Time: Angels, Ancestors, And Stories" (1993) - essays "The Left-handed Story: Writing and the Writer's Life" (2008) — essays

Selections "A Nancy Willard Reader" (1991) - poetry and prose