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, she was named not after her state of birth but after a character in one of her father's favorite books.[1]
She grew up in Johnstonville, California, a place near Susanville, California in the far northern section of California, one of two daughters.[2] Her parents ran a small airport in Susanville, where her mother was both a pilot and a mechanic.[3]
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.[2]
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.[2] Her first book was historical, titled Bittersweet was published in 1984. Her first mystery novel Track of the Cat 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 in Texas. Pigeon is a law enforcement ranger with the United States National Park Service. 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.
Barr became a full-time writer when her books began to achieve commercial success.[4]
She began painting in 1996, added to her writing, and her work in the National Park Service.
She moved to New Orleans after her third marriage to Donald Paxton and now lives in Oregon.[2]
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.
In 2011, the National Parks Conservation Association 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.[11]
References
^Davis, Jon M. "Nevada Barr". The Mississippi Writers Page. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
