Shirley Nelson
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Shirley Faye Nelson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 October 1925 Shillington, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | April 27, 2022 (aged 96) Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Providence Bible Institute; Moody Bible Institute; University at Albany (M.A. English) |
| Occupation | Author · Historian · Educator · Filmmaker |
| Years active | c. 1970s–2000s |
| Organizations | Barrington College (creative writing faculty) |
| Known for | Novelist and historian focusing on religious community history; co‑director of documentary *Precarious Peace: God and Guatemala* |
| Notable work | The Last Year of the War (1978); Fair, Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine (1989); The Risk of Returning (2014) |
| Spouse | Rudy Nelson (m. 1951–2022; her death) |
| Children | Three |
Shirley Faye Nelson (née White, October 12, 1925 – April 27, 2022) was an American author of three books, including The Last Year of the War.[1][2][3]
Nelson was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania in 1925, spent several years in New Jersey, and was raised in Holliston, Massachusetts. Her parents were Arnold and Merlyn White, fundamentalist Christians who once belonged to the Shiloh Colony in Maine.[4][5][6] She attended Moody Bible Institute and Providence Bible Institute where she met her future husband, the author and academic Rudy Nelson, in the 1940s. The couple married in 1951.[1][2][7][8]
Career
Nelson wrote three books, including The Last Year of the War which received many positive reviews and which won the Harper-Saxton Fellowship, the Chicago Friends of Literature award for fiction, and Honorable Mention for the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in 1979. She also taught creative writing for ten years at Barrington College. In 2006 she wrote and produced, along with her husband, the documentary film Precarious Peace: God and Guatemala. In addition, Nelson published poetry and essays in a variety of magazines and journals, including Southwest Review, Family Circle, Books and Culture, Old House Journal, and The Christian Century.[1][2][9] After publishing her first book, Nelson earned a master's degree in English from the University of Albany.[10]