A native of Youngstown, OH, Nancy bounced around the country—first to DC, then to New England where she earned an MA from the University of New Hampshire, to San Francisco, then back to Ohio. After a summer in Nebraska, she found her way to Pittsburgh, a city she loves.

In her MA and MFA programs, Nancy was split between her desire to learn about teaching (composition and rhetoric) and her creative work. That split manifested itself, happily, for 20 years in her work teaching reading skills to adults and English to refugees and immigrants while she wrote, taught poetry workshops, and was active in the poetry world in Pittsburgh.

In 2021, Nancy, Terrance Hayes and Jeffrey McDaniel became co-editors of the Pitt Poetry Series following Ed Ochester’s retirement. In addition to this work, she continues teaching poetry workshops in Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic writing program, where her students thrill and inspire her. She also teaches private manuscript classes and does one-on-one poetry consultations.

For 10 years, Nancy and Sherrie Flick (along with a great crew of helpers) ran the wildly popular Gist Street Reading Series. This monthly series, housed at James Simon’s sculpture studio, featured emerging and underappreciated writers. It was fun. Some of those writers have gone on to win major awards, including a Pulitzer and several National Book Award nominations and winners.