Nancy Willard

Nancy Willard was educated at the University of Michigan and Stanford University. She was the author of two novels, seven books of stories and essays, and eleven books of poetry. A winner of the Devins Memorial Award, she received NEA grants in both fiction and poetry. Her book Water Walker was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was also a beloved writer of children’s books, one of which, A Visit to William Blake’s Inn, with illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen, won the Newbery Medal, the first poetry book to win that medal. A longtime teacher in the English department at Vassar College, Willard died in 2017.