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Nancy Huddleston Packer

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Nancy Huddleston Packer (May 2, 1925 – April 1, 2025) was an American writer of short fiction and memoir, who was the Melvin and Bill Lane Professor in the Humanities, Emerita, at Stanford University.[1]

Early life and education

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Packer was born on May 2, 1925 in Washington, D.C.,[2][3] where her father, George Huddleston, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives,[4] representing Alabama’s 9th congressional district. She was one of five children, and as a child lived in both Washington and Birmingham, Alabama.[4] She graduated from Birmingham–Southern College in 1945,[5][6] and gained a master's degree in theology from the University of Chicago in 1947.[4][6][7] She then studied creative writing with Hudson Strode at the University of Alabama.[8]

Career

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Packer's first published work appeared in Harper's in 1953,[4][8][9] and other work appeared in Dude.[4] In 1957, she married Herbert L. Packer, and moved to California with him when he was appointed to Stanford University as a professor of law.[4][6] She was awarded a fellowship at Stanford University's creative writing center for 1959-60,[6] and studied writing with Wallace Stegner,[10] before joining the faculty in 1961 as a professor of English and creative writing.[4] Her short stories appeared in the O. Henry Award Prize Stories in 1969[11][12] and 1981.[13][14][15] From 1989-1993 she directed the Stanford University program in creative writing.[16][17][18] Among her students were Michael Cunningham[19] and Ethan Canin.[20] She served as fiction jury chair for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize,[21] and continued to teach creative writing through Stanford Continuing Studies.[19]

Personal life and death

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Packer's literary accomplishments include three short story collections and a memoir, published between 1976 and 1997. She retired from Stanford University in 1993, having served as the director of the Creative Writing Program and held the esteemed Melvin and Bill Lane Professorship in the Humanities.[22] She resided in Palo Alto, California. Her children George Packer and Ann Packer also pursue writing careers. Her husband died in 1972.[4][19]

Packer died from Alzheimer's disease on April 1, 2025, at the age of 99.[23]

Bibliography

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  • 1976 The Short Story: An Introduction (with Wilfred Stone and Robert Hoopes)
  • 1976 Small Moments[24][25][26]
  • 1986 Writing Worth Reading: A Practical Guide (with John Timpane)[27]
  • 1988 In My Father's House: Tales of an Unconformable Man[19]
  • 1989 The Women Who Walk[28][29][30][31][32][33]
  • 1997 Jealous-Hearted Me[34]
  • 2012 Old Ladies[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Stanford Profiles: Nancy Packer". Stanford University. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  2. ^ Nancy Huddleston Packer (May 2, 1925–present)
  3. ^ Packer, Nancy Huddleston, 1925
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Blitzer, Carol (August 17, 2012). "Old, but still kicking Nancy Packer's short stories offer crystal-clear characterizations". Palo Alto Weekly. Palo Alto. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  5. ^ "Southern graduates busy". The Montgomery Advertiser. Montgomery, Alabama. November 21, 1976. p. 71. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d "Menlo Park Mother Given Fellowship". The Times. San Mateo, California. June 19, 1959. p. 1, S2. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  7. ^ "Miss Huddleston Graduated". The Birmingham News. Birmingham, Alabama. June 18, 1947. p. 9. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Birmingham Author Has Story Published". Alabama Journal. Montgomery, Alabama. October 13, 1953. p. 6B. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  9. ^ "Miss Nancy Huddleston has article in Harper's". The Birmingham News. Birmingham, Alabama. October 1, 1953. p. 42. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  10. ^ Kirgo, Julie (December 1, 1996). "An 'Unfashionable Square'. Review of Wallace Stegner, His Life and Work, by Jackson J. Benson". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 7 BR. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  11. ^ Evans, David Allan (May 25, 1969). "O. Henry Award Winners Show Mastery of Craft". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 6E. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  12. ^ Hall, Barbara Hodge (April 27, 1969). "Malamud Takes Top Place In Annual O. Henry List". The Anniston Star. Anniston, Alabama. p. 30. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  13. ^ Hall, Barbara Hodge (May 24, 1981). "Cynthia Ozick tops O. Henry series awards". The Anniston Star. Anniston, Alabama. p. 53. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  14. ^ Schapiro, Nancy (June 21, 1981). "Best of the O. Henrys". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. p. 4C. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  15. ^ Welch, Susan (June 28, 1981). "A short story 'returned to us in a single breath ...'". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 14G. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  16. ^ Cunningham, Michael (July–August 1996). "Why Being Brilliant Isn't Enough NANCY PACKER'S LESSON PLAN". Stanford University: Stanford Today. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  17. ^ "9607np.HTML".
  18. ^ "Nancy Huddleston Packer". Stanford University: Stanford English. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d Benson, Heidi (June 1, 2008). "Thicker Than Water From two generations of the Packer family, four very different writers emerged". SFGate. San Francisco, California. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  20. ^ Sutherland, Amy (February 21, 2016). "Ethan Canin: fiction writer with a taste for non-fiction". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. N11. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  21. ^ Keller, Julia; Mills, Marja (April 10, 2002). "Where have all the good books gone? Good question". Chicago Tribune. pp. 1, 8, S5. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  22. ^ "» Author". apps.lib.ua.edu. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  23. ^ Wu, Catherine (April 3, 2025). "Nancy Packer, professor emerita of humanities, dies at 99". stanforddaily.com. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
  24. ^ Schwartz, Howard (September 7, 1976). "Book Reviews". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. p. 3C. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  25. ^ Abrahams, William (Winter 1977). "Review: A Matter of Small Moment". The Sewanee Review. 85 (1). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 111–115. JSTOR 27543198.
  26. ^ Pritchard, William H. (Spring 1977). "Review: Merely Fiction". The Hudson Review. 30 (1): 154. doi:10.2307/3850667. JSTOR 3850667.
  27. ^ Royster, Jacqueline Jones (February 1987). "Reviewed Work: Writing Worth Reading: A Practical Guide by Nancy Huddleston Packer, John Timpane". College Composition and Communication. 38 (1). National Council of Teachers of English: 105. doi:10.2307/357597. JSTOR 357597.
  28. ^ Feliciano, Kristina (October 6, 1989). "Short stories of everyday life". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 2D. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  29. ^ Bernstein, Susanna (August 13, 1989). "Short Story Writer Finds Beauty in Ordinary Lives". Albuquerque Journal. Albuquerque, New Mexico. p. G8. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  30. ^ Edelstein, Wendy (August 27, 1989). "Women Who Draw on Reserves of Strength". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 192. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  31. ^ Whitehouse, Anne (September 10, 1989). "In Brief. The Women Who Walk". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia. p. L8. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  32. ^ Current-Garcia, Eugene (Winter 1990). "Reviews. The Women Who Walk". Studies in Short Fiction. 27 (1): 116–117. ISSN 0039-3789.
  33. ^ Johnson, Greg (Spring–Summer 1990). "Review: Some Recent Herstories". The Georgia Review. 44 (1–2, Women & the Arts): 278–288. JSTOR 41400037.
  34. ^ Diliberto, Gioia. "Paperbacks". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 8, S14. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
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