ABOUT NANCY

Nancy L. Abrams has lived in three states. Missouri, the place of her birth, is generally ignored. West Virginia, where she spent her professional life and where she now lives, is generally pitied. New Jersey, where she briefly sojourned, is generally despised. Still, she has no desire to live in a state with a grand reputation.

Nancy is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she trained as a photojournalist. She spent a decade at The Preston County News in Terra Alta, West Virginia. She next worked at the Morgantown Dominion Post, where she was a photographer, a writer, and, finally, editor of Panorama, the Sunday magazine. She spent her next decade as the manager of publications at West Virginia University’s Medical Center. Nancy earned an MFA in creative writing - nonfiction from the New School the year she turned 55.

Nancy has won many awards for her writing and photography. Her photographs have been exhibited in West Virginia, Illinois, New Jersey, and California and she has had several pieces accepted in international juried shows. Her writing has appeared in books about West Virginia and Fragile X Syndrome. An 2006 op-ed piece about her younger son’s persistent belief in Santa Claus, published in New Jersey's Star-Ledger, elicited responses from across the country.

She is the mother of two sons with fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that causes intellectual disability, behavioral and learning challenges, and various physical characteristics.

Nancy is represented by Susan Cohen, Senior Agent, Writers House LLC, 21 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10010. Email:SCohen@WritersHouse.com. Her photographic work is represented by Rare Nest Gallery, 3433 North Kedvale, Chicago, IL 60641, 708-616-8671, keith@rarenestgallery.com.