Nancy Garden

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Nancy Garden
BornMay 15, 1938 (1938-05-15)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedJune 23, 2014(2014-06-23) (aged 76)
Carlisle, Massachusetts
OccupationWriter
Period1971–2012
Genre
Literary movement LGBT literature
Notable work Annie on My Mind
Notable awards Margaret Edwards Award
2003
PartnerSandy Scott (45 years)
Website
nancygarden.com

Nancy Garden (May 15, 1938 – June 23, 2014) was an American writer of fiction for children and young adults, best known for the lesbian novel Annie on My Mind . She received the 2003 Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association recognizing her lifetime contribution in writing for teens, citing Annie alone. [1] [2]

Contents

Annie On My Mind was awarded the Lee Lynch Classic Award by the Golden Crown Literary Society in 2014, cited as one of the most important classics in lesbian literature. [ citation needed ]

Biography

Garden was born in 1938 in Boston. She was an only child who "took refuge in books, in writing, and in telling long stories to myself and sometimes acting them out." [3] She earned a B.F.A. (1961) and an M.A. (1962) from Columbia University School of Dramatic Arts. Through school and for several years after college, Garden worked in theater, supplementing the work with odd jobs in offices. This includes freelance editorial work for various publishers. Garden began her writing career as an assistant editor in Scholastic Magazine in New York, NY. By 1970, Garden had risen to associate editor. She moved on to be an editor at Houghton Mifflin CO in Boston, MA between 1971 and 1976. She later visited and gave talks at schools and libraries, teaching children about writing. [4] She has also written non-fiction, mystery and fantasy for children and young adults.

Garden is best known for Annie on My Mind , published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1982. It was critically acclaimed but attracted controversy because of its lesbian characters, Annie and Liza, who fall in love. It was one of the first teen novels to feature lesbian characters in a positive light. [5] "I wrote it to give solace to young gay people, to let them know they were not alone, that they could be happy and well adjusted and also to let heterosexual kids know that we gay people aren't monsters," she told Booklist in a 1996 interview. [6]

In 1993, Annie on My Mind was banned by the Kansas City school system and burnt in demonstrations. It was returned to shelves only after a First Amendment lawsuit by students in 1995. It is #44 on the American Library Association list of 100 books most frequently challenged during the 1990s. [7]

Garden received the Robert B. Downs Award for Intellectual Freedom in 2001 from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science. [8] [9]

The ALA Margaret A. Edwards Award recognizes one writer and a particular body of work "for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature." Garden won the annual award in 2003, when the panel cited Annie on My Mind alone and called her "the first author for young adults to create a lesbian love story with a positive ending ... Using a fluid, readable style, Garden opens a window through which readers can find courage to be true to themselves." [1] Five years later Garden recalled that "I was and still am enormously grateful ... for YALSA’s recognition ... of the importance of YA books about LGBT youth." [10]

Garden's reviews of young adult titles have appeared in the Lambda Literary Foundation's Lambda Book Report.

She spent many years living between Massachusetts and Maine, with partner Sandy Scott, their golden retriever, Loki, and their cats. [11]

Death

Nancy Garden died of a heart attack on June 23, 2014, aged 76. [12]

Works

Nonfiction

  • Berlin: City Split in Two (Putnam's, 1971)
  • Fun with Weather Forecasting, illus. Dorothea Sierra (Houghton Mifflin, 1973)
  • The Kids' Code and Cipher Book (1988)
  • Weird and Horrible series
    • Vampires (1973)
    • Werewolves (1973)
    • Witches (1975)
    • Devils and Demons (1976)

Fiction

  • What Happened in Marston (1971)
  • The Loners (1972)
  • Mist Maiden (1975)
  • Annie on My Mind (1982)
  • Maria's Mountain (1983)
  • Prisoner of Vampires (1984)
  • Peace, O River (1986)
  • Lark in the Morning (1991)
  • My Sister, the Vampire (1992)
  • Dove and Sword: A Novel of Joan of Arc (1995)
  • My Brother, the Werewolf (1995)
  • Good Moon Rising (1996)
  • The Year They Burned the Books (1999)
  • Holly's Secret (2000)
  • Prisoners of Vampires (2001)
  • Nora and Liz (2002)
  • Meeting Melanie (2002)
  • Molly's Family (2004)
  • Endgame (2006)
  • Hear Us Out! (2007)
  • Fours Crossing series
    • Fours Crossing (1981)
    • Watersmeet (1983)
    • The Door Between (1987)
  • Monster Hunters
  1. Mystery of the Night Raiders (1987)
  2. Mystery of the Midnight Menace (1988)
  3. Mystery of the Secret Marks (1989)
  4. Mystery of the Kidnapped Kidnapper (1994)
  5. Mystery of the Watchful Witches (1995)
  • Candlestone Inn
  1. The Case of the Stolen Scarab (2004)
  2. The Case of the Vanishing Valuables (2010)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Lia Block</span> American writer (born 1963)

Francesca Lia Block is an American writer of adult and young-adult literature. She wrote the Weetzie Bat series, which she began while a student at UC Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesléa Newman</span> American author, editor, and feminist

Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.

The Michael L. Printz Award is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit". It is sponsored by Booklist magazine; administered by the ALA's young-adult division, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); and named for the Topeka, Kansas, school librarian Mike Printz, a long-time active member of YALSA. Up to four worthy runners-up may be designated Honor Books and three or four have been named every year.

<i>Annie on My Mind</i> 1982 young adult novel by Nancy Garden

Annie on My Mind is a 1982 novel by Nancy Garden about the romantic relationship between two 17-year-old New York City girls, Annie and Liza.

Gay teen fiction is a subgenre that overlaps with LGBTQ+ literature and young adult literature. This article covers books about gay and bisexual teenage characters who are male.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Peck (writer)</span> American novelist (1934-2018)

Richard Wayne Peck was an American novelist known for his contributions to modern young adult literature. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel A Year Down Yonder. He received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marijane Meaker</span> American writer (1927–2022)

Marijane Agnes Meaker was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Woodson</span> American writer (born 1963)

Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian literature</span> Subgenre of literature with lesbian themes

Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. A similar term is sapphic literature, encompassing works that feature love between women that are not necessarily lesbian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon M. Draper</span> American childrens writer and educator

Sharon Mills Draper is an American children's writer, professional educator, and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year. She is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for books about the young and adolescent African-American experience. She is known for her Hazelwood and Jericho series, Copper Sun,Double Dutch, Out of My Mind and Romiette and Julio.

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of libraries to better serve teens. YALSA administers several awards and sponsors an annual Young Adult Literature Symposium, Teen Read Week, the third week of each October, and Teen Tech Week, the second week of each March. YALSA currently has over 5,200 members. YALSA aims to expand and strengthen library services for teens through advocacy, research, professional development and events.

The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the pioneer, longtime director of young adult services at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret A. Edwards</span> American librarian

Margaret Alexander Edwards was an American educator and librarian who was at the forefront of the movement for young adult services in the 20th century. She is the namesake of the Margaret Edwards Award for young adult literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adele Griffin</span> American young adult fiction author

Adele Griffin is the author of over thirty highly acclaimed books across a variety of genres, including Sons of Liberty and Where I Want to Be, both National Book Award finalists. Her debut adult novel The Favor explores themes of friendship, surrogacy, and nontraditional family building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. S. King</span> American writer

Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."

Marion Dane Bauer is an American children's author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdi Nazemian</span> Iranian-American author, screenwriter and producer

Abdi Nazemian is an Iranian-American author, screenwriter, and producer. His debut novel, The Walk-In Closet, won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction at the 27th Lambda Literary Awards. He has subsequently received a second Lambda Literary Award for his young adult novel Only This Beautiful Moment, as well as a Stonewall Book Award for Only This Beautiful Moment and a Stonewall Honor for Like a Love Story, both from the American Library Association.

Bisexual literature is a subgenre of LGBTQ literature that includes literary works and authors that address the topic of bisexuality or biromanticism. This includes characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying bisexual behavior in both men and women.

Nina LaCour is an American author, primarily known for writing young adult literature with queer, romantic story lines. Her novel We Are Okay won the Printz Award in 2017.

<i>When Someone You Know Is Gay</i> 1989 non-fiction book by Susan and Daniel Cohen

When Someone You Know Is Gay is a 1989 non-fiction book by Susan and Daniel Cohen.

References

  1. 1 2 "2003 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award", ala.org; retrieved 2013-10-10.
  2. ↑ . Authors4Teens. Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Something About the Author, Volume 12, p. 86, quoted in Frances Ann Day, Lesbian and Gay Voices. Greenwood Press. ISBN   9780313095443.
  4. ↑ "Garden, Nancy - Authors and Artists for Young Adults | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  5. ↑ "Nancy Garden" Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine . TeenReads (teenreads.com).
  6. ↑ Quoted in Frances Ann Day, Lesbian and gay voices, Greenwood Press. [ full citation needed ]
  7. ↑ "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". Banned & Challenged Books. ALA; retrieved 2013-10-13.
  8. ↑ "Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award". Library and Information Science, University of Illinois (lis.illinois.edu).
  9. ↑ "Author Update: Nancy Garden" (interview by CLS). Cynsations (blog). Cynthia Leitich Smith. June 7, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Looking Back". YALSA. ALA. 2008. Retrieved 2013-10-13. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Edwards Award.
  11. ↑ "About me" Archived 2008-10-04 at the Wayback Machine . Nancy Garden (nancygarden.com).
  12. ↑ Victoria, Brownworth. "In Remembrance: Nancy Garden". Lambda Literary Review. Lambda Literary Foundation. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.