Nancy Lord

PicturePhoto by Irene Owsley
Nancy, who makes her home in Homer, Alaska with her partner Ken Castner, is passionate about place, history, and the natural environment.  From her many years of commercial salmon fishing and, later, work as a naturalist and historian on adventure cruise ships, she’s explored in both fiction and nonfiction the myths and realities of life in the north. Among her nonfiction books are the memoir Fishcamp: Life on an Alaskan Shore, the cautionary Beluga Days: Tracking a White Whale’s Truths, and Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-changed North. Her fiction includes the forthcoming Let Them Tell You: New and Selected Short Stories and pH: A Novel. She has also edited two anthologies--Made of Salmon: Alaska Stories from the Salmon Project and the forthcoming Alaska Literary Field Guide.  

Nancy was honored as Alaska Writer Laureate for 2008-10, a term during which she traveled throughout the state to promote Alaska writers, writing, and libraries.

Nancy is originally from New Hampshire and holds degrees from Hampshire College (B.A. in liberal arts) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (M.F.A. in fiction writing.)  She taught for many years in the University of Alaska system, including in its now-extinct low-residency M.F.A. program. She currently enjoys teaching in the Johns Hopkins University graduate science writing program. 

Her awards include fellowships from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and a number of artist residencies. Her work has appeared in many magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Best Spiritual Writing.

Since 2015 she has regularly reviewed Alaska-related books for the Anchorage Daily News.

Nancy also engages in conservation and community-building causes. She has served on the boards of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, the Alaska Conservation Foundation, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the University of Alaska Press (among others.)  She currently serves on the board of Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and chairs its advocacy committee. She chaired Homer’s successful New Library campaign in 2002-05 and is rightly proud of her community library. 

Nancy enjoys hiking, kayaking, berry picking, beach combing, bird and wildlife watching, and playing pickleball. She also enjoys sitting in a comfy chair to read!​

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