Nancy Garden is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 of children's and young adult literature.

Biography

She is best known for her novel, Annie on My Mind

Annie on My Mind

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.-Characters:...

(1982), which was critically acclaimed but attracted controversy because of its lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 characters, Annie and Liza who fall in love. It was one of the first teen novels to feature lesbian characters in a positive light. In 1993, it was banned by the Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 school system and burnt in demonstrations. It was returned to shelves only after a First Amendment

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

 lawsuit by students in 1995. It is #48 on the American Library Association's list of 100 Most Frequently Banned or Challenged Books, 1990-2000.

Garden earned a B.F.A.

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 (1961) and an M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 (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. She later taught school and worked as an editor of children's literature. She has also written non-fiction, mystery and fantasy for children and young adults. Other titles also feature GLBT characters. In 2001, Garden received the Robert B. Downs Award for Intellectual Freedom from the University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science. In 2003, the American Library Association

American Library Association

The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....

 awarded her the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing books for teens.
Garden's review of young adult titles have appeared in the Lambda Literary Foundation

Lambda Literary Foundation

The Lambda Literary Foundation is the largest LGBT literary organization in the world. The foundation's mission is to nurture, celebrate, and preserve Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender literature through three programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of...

's Lambda Book Report.

She currently divides her time between Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

, with partner Sandy Scott, their golden retriever

Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...

, Loki, and their cats.

Fiction

• What Happened in Marston (1971)
• The Loners (1972)
• Mist Maiden (1975)
• Annie on My Mind
  Annie on My Mind
  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.-Characters:...
  
  (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)
• The Case of the Stolen Scarab (2002)
• Nora and Liz (2002)
• Meeting Melanie (2002)
• Molly's Family (2004)
• Endgame (2006)
• Hear Us Out! (2007)

Weird and Horrible

• Vampires (1973)
• Werewolves (1973
• Witches (1975)
• Devils and Demons

External links

• http://www.nancygarden.com