Nancy Mairs (née Smith; July 23, 1943 – December 3, 2016) was an author who wrote about diverse topics, including spirituality, women's issues and her experiences living with

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

Life

Mairs was born on July 23, 1943, in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) when she was 28, and began using a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

soon after. She wrote several essays on her experiences as a self-described "cripple", including "On Being a Cripple," "Sex and the Gimpy Girl," and the memoir ''Waist High in the World''. In her 30s, she converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

, a faith that she frequently wrote about in her essays. She was married to George Mairs. Nancy Mairs died in

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 ...

on December 3, 2016.

Career

She earned an AB from Wheaton College in 1964. Prior to attending graduate school, Mairs worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge and the International Tax Program at Harvard Law School. She went on to earn an MFA in writing in 1975 and a Ph.D. in 1983; both graduate degrees were from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. Her PhD dissertation became the book that was eventually published as the essay collection ''Plaintext'' (1986). Mairs published poetry and essays regularly, and was particularly well known for writing about her experiences as a woman with a physical disability. She also wrote about her experiences with managing depression. In 2011, Palgrave published ''On the Literary Nonfiction of Nancy Mairs: A Critical Anthology'', an edited collection of her essays with commentaries on and essays about her work.

Works

''In All the Rooms of the Yellow House'' (1984)
''Plaintext'' (1986)
''Remembering the Bonehouse'' (1989)
''Carnal Acts'' (1990)
''Ordinary Time'' (1993)
''Voice Lessons'' (1994)
''Waist-High in the World: A Life Among the Nondisabled'' (1996)
''A Troubled Guest: Life and Death Stories'' (2001)
''Essays Out Loud: On Having Adventures & A Necessary End'' (CD) (2004)
''A Dynamic God: Living an Unconventional Catholic Faith'' (2007)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mairs, Nancy 1943 births 2016 deaths University of Arizona alumni Wheaton College (Massachusetts) alumni American essayists American Roman Catholics