Nevada Barr
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Nevada Barr (born March 1, 1952) is an American author of mystery fiction. She is known for her Anna Pigeon series, which is primarily set in a series of national parks and other protected areas of the United States.


Early life

Although Barr was born in
Yerington, Nevada Yerington is a city in Lyon County, Nevada, United States. The population was 3,048 at the 2010 census. It is the current county seat of Lyon County, with the first county seat having been established at Dayton on November 29, 1861. It is na ...
, she was named not after her state of birth but after a character in one of her father's favorite books. She grew up in
Johnstonville, California Johnstonville (formerly, Toadtown) is a census-designated place in Lassen County, California. It is located east-southeast of Susanville, at an elevation of 4131 feet (1259 m). Its population is 973 as of the 2020 census, down from 1,024 from th ...
, a place near Susanville, California in the far northern section of California, one of two daughters. Her parents ran a small airport in Susanville, where her mother was both a pilot and a mechanic. In her teenage years she learned to pilot a plane from her mother. Barr received her bachelor's degree in speech and drama, and master's degree in acting at
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...
, in southern California. She finished her education at the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
.


Artistic career

Barr trained in drama and was a professional actor on stage and in voice-overs for 18 years after receiving her master's degree at University of California at Irvine. She began writing in those years. She lived in New York City and Minneapolis and had a brief early marriage before moving to Clinton, Mississippi to work as a Park Ranger and where she married her second husband. When Barr's first husband changed careers from being a theatre director and became interested in the environmental movement, she began working as a seasonal park ranger in the summer at several National Parks. Her first permanent park ranger job was on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. Barr began writing in earnest in 1978, when she was 26. Her first book was historical, titled Bittersweet was published in 1984. Her first mystery novel ''
Track of the Cat ''Track of the Cat'' is a 1954 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright and Diana Lynn. The film is based on a 1949 adventure novel of the same name by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. This was ...
'' was published in 1993. This won two awards as a first novel. That first novel featured the character of Anna Pigeon, which character she conceived while working at her second seasonal job in
Guadalupe Mountains National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains, east of El Paso, Texas. The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at , and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the ...
in Texas. Pigeon is a law enforcement ranger with the
United States National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
. The first mystery novel became first in a series. The books in the series take place in various national parks (and other protected areas) where Pigeon solves murders that are often related to natural resource issues. The Anna Pigeon character shares several similarities with Barr, such as working as a park ranger and having had a husband who worked in the theater in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Barr became a full-time writer when her books began to achieve commercial success. She began painting in 1996, added to her writing, and her work in the National Park Service. She moved to
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
after her third marriage to Donald Paxton and now lives in Oregon.


Personal life

While in her acting career, Barr had a brief first marriage.They were both in theatre. Her husband developed an interest in the physical environment and took a position in the National Park Service.This sparked a similar interest in Barr. She followed him and secured a position as a seasonal ranger at Isle Royal National Park. She then worked as a seasonal ranger at Guadaloupe Mts and then Mesa Verde. When her marriage ended she returned home to her mother in California.In 1994 she got a permanent position as a Park Ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. She was the first female law enforcement ranger to work on the Parkway. She met her second husband,a second generation Park Ranger also working on The Trace. By this time she'd successfully started her Anna Pigeon mystery series based on a female Park Ranger and set in National Parks. Her husband took an early retiremnt in 1996 and shortly after, Nevada resigned her position to write full time. With her husband assisting in research and acting as her personal assistant, she published a book a year until their divorce in 2006. Shortly after she remarried and moved to New Orleans and continued to write and paint. She now lives in Oregon with her husband.


Bibliography


Anna Pigeon series

*1993 ''
Track of the Cat ''Track of the Cat'' is a 1954 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright and Diana Lynn. The film is based on a 1949 adventure novel of the same name by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. This was ...
'' ()
Guadalupe Mountains National Park Guadalupe Mountains National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains, east of El Paso, Texas. The mountain range includes Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at , and El Capitan used as a landmark by travelers on the ...
*1994 ''A Superior Death'' ()
Isle Royale National Park Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan ...
*1995 ''Ill Wind'' ()
Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Established ...
*1996 ''Firestorm'' ()
Lassen Volcanic National Park Lassen Volcanic National Park is an American national park in northeastern California. The dominant feature of the park is Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano in the world and the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range. Lassen Vol ...
*1997 ''Endangered Species'' ()
Cumberland Island National Seashore Cumberland Island National Seashore preserves most of Cumberland Island in Camden County, Georgia, the largest of Georgia's Golden Isles. The seashore features beaches and dunes, marshes, and freshwater lakes. The national seashore also preserve ...
*1998 ''Blind Descent'' ()
Carlsbad Caverns National Park Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural ...
*1999 ''Liberty Falling'' ()
Statue of Liberty National Monument *2000 ''Deep South'' ()
Natchez Trace Parkway *2001 ''Blood Lure'' ()
Glacier National Park *2002 ''Hunting Season'' ()
Natchez Trace Parkway *2003 ''Flashback'' ()
Dry Tortugas National Park Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago' ...
*2004 ''High Country'' ()
Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...
*2005 ''Hard Truth'' ()
Rocky Mountain National Park *2008 ''Winter Study'' ()
Isle Royale National Park Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan ...
*2009 ''Borderline'' ()
Big Bend National Park *2010 ''Burn'' ()
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park is a U.S. National Historical Park in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, near the French Quarter. It was created in 1994 to celebrate the origins and evolution of jazz. Most of the historical p ...
*2012 ''The Rope'' ()
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon ...
*2014 ''Destroyer Angel'' ()
Superior National Forest Superior National Forest, part of the United States National Forest system, is located in the Arrowhead Region of the state of Minnesota between the Canada–United States border and the north shore of Lake Superior. The area is part of the grea ...
*2016 ''Boar Island'' ()
Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, an ...


Other books

Barr has published three other novels besides the Anna Pigeon series in addition to a non-fiction book: *1984 ''Bittersweet'' (), a lesbian historical novel set on the Western frontier *2003 ''Seeking Enlightenment... Hat by Hat: A Skeptic's Guide to Religion'' (), a memoir *2009 ''13'' (), a psychological thriller *2019 ''What Rose Forgot'' (), a standalone thriller


Awards

Barr's
début novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
, ''Track of the Cat'', won the
1994 Anthony Award Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the con ...
and Agatha Award for "Best First Novel". Her next novel, ''Superior Death'', was nominated for the
Dilys Award The Dilys Award was presented every year from 1992 to 2014 by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. It was given to the mystery title of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The Independent Mystery Bookseller ...
in 1995. ''Firestorm'' was nominated for the 1997 Anthony Award in the "Best Novel" category. ''Blind Descent'' was the next novel to receive attention from the mystery community, receiving a "Best Novel" nomination at the 1999 Anthony Awards, Dilys Awards and the
Macavity Awards The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the " mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' ...
in the same year. ''Deep South'', published in 2000, won the Barry Award for "Best Novel" and was again nominated for the
Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the m ...
in the same category. In 2011, the
National Parks Conservation Association The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is the only independent, nonpartisan membership organization devoted exclusively to advocacy on behalf of the National Parks System. Its mission is "to protect and enhance America's National Pa ...
honored Barr with the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks. The award recognizes an individual or organization that has effectively communicated the values of the National Park System to the American public.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, Nevada 1952 births Living people Agatha Award winners American mystery writers American women novelists Writers from Nevada Novelists from Mississippi Writers from New Orleans People from Yerington, Nevada Anthony Award winners Barry Award winners University of California, Irvine alumni 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists People from Lassen County, California National Park Service personnel Women mystery writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Novelists from California Novelists from Louisiana