About Nancy Pinard
Professionally-speaking, Nancy Pinard is an author-educator who spends her days writing, teaching, reading, and researching for her writing and teaching. She is the author of two published novels, Shadow Dancing and Butterfly Soup, and numerous short stories. She has taught the craft of fiction writing in many venues including Sinclair Community College, University of Dayton Life-Long Learning Institute, Antioch Writers' Workshop, Mad Anthony Writers' Workshop, and Molasses Pond Writers' Workshop.
Personally, her faith is what sustains, inspires, and motivates her to continue to explore meaning through literature.
"You are right in demanding that an artist approach his work consciously, but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist." Anton Chekov to Alexei Suvorin, October 27, 1888
As part of my attempt to embrace the complexity of Albert Einstein, I’m exploring a chapter in Lewis Pyenson’s book The Young Einstein: The Advent of Relativity. Pyenson begins by enumerating the failures Einstein overcame prior to being awarded the … Continue reading →
After writing clinically about mystery in my last post, I got thinking about how it enters the text. First, I checked Dictionary.com and came up with these two appropriate definitions: anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown: … Continue reading →
I just returned from two days spent at the Ohio University Literary Festival, where lectures were delivered by writers Amy Hempel (if you don’t know her story, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried,” read it without passing Go), … Continue reading →
I am a writer. I am also a tennis player. (In fact, I have torn the ligaments in my right elbow playing tennis, and in lieu of having Tommy John surgery, I wear a wrist-to-shoulder metal Bledsoe brace on my … Continue reading →
Posted in Annie Darwin, Charles Darwin, death, Einstein, Einstein's children, Einstein's Daughter, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Mileva Maric, obsession, point of view, reading, Serbia, writing, Zurich
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I will be teaching a workshop on writing the endings of short stories and novels at the Mad Anthony Writers’ Workshop April 13-15 in Hamilton, Ohio. In the process of preparing, I was made conscious of subjects that generally remain … Continue reading →
The writing matters. Last summer I was in 2nd and Charles, the used bookstore associated with Books-a-Million Corporation, browsing the remaindered paperbacks. These are new books, sold for insultingly low prices, an insult I’m willing to inflict to benefit … Continue reading →
I’m just finishing up a debut novel by Debra Dean called The Madonnas of Leningrad, a must-read for art lovers and anyone who wants to know what it was like to survive the terrible winter of the Nazi seige of … Continue reading →
In keeping with my resolve not to change the historical record where it exists, I still wrestle with how to handle the gaps. The writing of fictional biography gives me some license, of course, but I mostly interpret that to … Continue reading →
Posted in Auguste Forel, Bulgholzli Psychiatric Hospital, Eduard Einstein, Einstein's Daughter, Fictional biography, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Marija Maric, Michele Zackheim, Mileva Maric, Milos Maric, point of view, reading, schizophrenia, Serbia, writing, Zorka Maric, Zurich
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In keeping with my last post where I notated such helpful creative habits as building on predecessors and keeping the company of like minds, I turned in the night–one of spotty sleep–to the short stories of Andrea Barrett, whose collection, … Continue reading →
This morning I came across this letter from Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille, both dancers that left a long trail of amazing choreography, works which are not only still being performed, but which arguably form the backbone of some dance companies’ repertoire. A Letter … Continue reading →
