Photo credit Rox Spiegel

WRITER and TEACHER

Author of the Award-Winning Novel My Jim

Nancy Rawles has worked as a novelist and playwright. She has received many awards for her writing, including an Alex Award from the American Library Association, an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and a Legacy Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. The New York Times called her novel My Jim “as heart-wrenching a personal history as any recorded in American literature.”

Nancy spent many years teaching intensive writing workshops for Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools Program (WITS). She has also taught a wide variety of classes as a visiting writer, including Long-Form Fiction at Seattle University and African American Cultural Studies at Kaziemierz Pulaski University in Poland. Most recently, she taught in the History Department at Lakeside School in Seattle.

In addition, Nancy has lectured extensively on such topics as The Meaning of Freedom (Hampton University), Creating Characters in Historical Fiction (Occidental College), and What We Owe to Our Daughters (Brandeis University).