Nancy Farmer

Nancy Farmer was born in Phoenix in 1941 and grew up near the border of Arizona and Mexico. At the age of nine, she worked the switchboard in a hotel and found time to explore the old state prison and a hobo jungle along the Colorado River. After graduating from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1963, Farmer decided to join the Peace Corps and was sent to India for two years. Upon her return, she moved into a commune in Berkeley, took up various jobs, and eventually developed an interest in Africa. She spent more than a year in Mozambique, monitoring water weeds on Lake Cabora Bassa, and later worked in Zimbabwe to help control tsetse fly near the Zambezi River. It was in Harare where she met her future husband, Harold, who proposed to her a week later. They now reside in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona, which served as the setting for Farmer's novel, The Lord of Opium. They have a son named Daniel who serves in the U.S. Navy.

Nancy Farmer is an accomplished author with numerous awards and recognitions for her works. Among her most notable awards are the National Book Award for The House of the Scorpion and Newbery Honors for The Ear, the Eye and The Arm, A Girl Named Disaster, and The House of the Scorpion. She has written a total of nine novels, three picture books, and a number of short stories. Her books have been translated into twenty-six languages, showcasing her global appeal and reach. Farmer has a strong connection to the Arizona-Mexico border, having grown up there, and this setting is often reflected in her works. She currently resides in Arizona with her family.