Nanci Pierce Kincaid (born September 5, 1950) is an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

who wrote a short story collection titled ''Pretending the Bed Is a Raft'' (1997), as well as novels ''Crossing Blood'' (1991), ''Balls'' (1999), ''Verbena'' (2002), and ''As Hot As It Was You Ought to Thank Me'' (2005). The film ''

My Life Without Me ''My Life Without Me'' is a 2003 Spanish-Canadian drama film directed by Isabel Coixet and starring Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Scott Speedman, and Leonor Watling. Based on the 1997 short story collection ''Pretending the Bed Is a Raft'' by Nanci ...

'' was based on the title story in ''Pretending the Bed Is a Raft''. Her most recent novel is "Eat, Drink, and be from Mississippi" (Little, Brown, 2009).

Early life and education

Born Nanci Pierce in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

, Kincaid grew up in Richmond, Virginia and graduated from Huguenot High School in 1968. After attending

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

and the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

, Kincaid completed her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

at Athens State College (now

Athens State University Athens State University is a public upper-division university in Athens, Alabama. Its academics are housed in three colleges: Education, Arts and Sciences, and Business. History Athens State University is Alabama's oldest educational institutio ...

) in 1987. In 1991, Kincaid completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

Personal life

She was previously married to former

and

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osa ...

football coach Al Kincaid. In 1997, Kincaid married college football coach

Dick Tomey Richard Hastings Tomey (June 20, 1938 – May 10, 2019) was an American football coach and player. Tomey served as the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (1977–1986), University of Arizona (1987–2000), and San Jose State ...

; their marriage lasted until Tomey's death in 2019. They had four children and five grandchildren. With Tomey, Kincaid lived in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

;

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

; and

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

References

1950 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American women short story writers American women novelists Athens State University alumni Writers from Richmond, Virginia Writers from San Diego Writers from San Jose, California Writers from Tallahassee, Florida Writers from Honolulu 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers Novelists from Alabama Novelists from California Novelists from Florida Novelists from Hawaii Novelists from Virginia University of Alabama alumni Virginia Tech alumni University of Wyoming alumni {{US-novelist-1950s-stub