Occupation Writer, photographer Alma mater Bucknell University Education Bucknell University | Nationality American Period 1963–2013 | |
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Born June 20, 1936
Trenton, New Jersey, United States ( 1936-06-20 ) Genre Poetry, children's literature Died 12 March 2013, Eldorado at Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States Books Many Winters, Dancing moons, Shaman's circle, Old Coyote, Mr and Mrs God in the Creati Similar Roy Stryker, Rod Kedward, Timothy B Ering, György Schöpflin, Richard Erdoes | ||
Nancy Wood (June 20, 1936 – March 12, 2013) was an American author, poet, and photographer. Wood published numerous collections of poetry as well as children's novels. Major themes and influences in her work were Native American culture of the Southwestern United States.
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Her career, which spanned over four decades, included 28 publications of prose and poetry, and several photograph collections. Wood was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and a recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award.
Early life
Wood was born to an Irish Catholic family in Trenton, New Jersey, where she was raised. Her father was a numbers runner for the Irish Mob. She graduated from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Career
After graduating from college in 1958, Wood relocated to Colorado, where she lived until 1985. After visiting Taos Pueblo in New Mexico in 1962, Wood became greatly influenced by the Puebloan peoples' culture and spiritual beliefs, which would come to inform her literary work. "It was 180 degrees from what I knew growing up,” she said. “Nature was the center. I began to think in those terms— here was not just a ‘religion’ but a whole way of being and seeing.”
Originally working as a photographer, her first publication was a collection of photographs in collaboration with husband Myron Wood, titled Central City: A Ballad of the West (1963). Her first work of poetry was published by Doubleday in 1974, titled Many Winters: Prose and Poetry of the Pueblos, inspired by her time spent in the Taos Pueblo. This would mark a lasting collaboration with illustrator Frank Howell, who provided artwork and illustrations for Wood's publications until his death in 1997. She would go on to publish numerous collections of poetry into the 2000s, as well as novels and photograph collections.
Wood also published children's books, including How the Tiny People Grew Tall: An Original Creation Tale (2005), and Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen (2006), both of which recount traditional tales of the Pueblo people, as well as Thunderwoman (1999), which retells a Pueblo creation myth. In 2007, Wood published Eye of the West through University of New Mexico Press, followed by The Soledad Crucifixion, which earned her a posthumous Zia Award from the university.
Wood received many honors throughout her career, including a National Endowment for the Arts literary fellowship, and a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for her 1993 book, Spirit Walker.
Personal life
Wood was married three times: first to Oscar Dull, then Myron Wood, and John Brittingham. She had four children. In early 2013, Wood was diagnosed with terminal melanoma. She died at her home in Eldorado at Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 12, 2013.