About Nancy
Nancy Dorrier - writer, mentor, and leadership champion -- listens with her heart and invites us to live rich, bold, caring lives.
Enter her living room and your eyes feast on Red Theresa, the whimsical dog sculpture made of red buttons and beads; the christening gown made from used teabags by a papermaker artist; the ceramic women who sit and look at each other and whisper and laugh in the corner. Sit for a while and discover Lyle Lovett or Buddhist chants or the voices of her teenage grandchildren in the background.
Nancy has published two books: Stan Went Fishing: Stories and Images of Waking Up (2017) and Manners and Me: An Easy Peasy Guide for Kids and the Grownups Who Love Them (2019).
Her first book grew out of a journey of self-discovery as her family embraced life with a child who never walked or talked, but filled their hearts with his crooked smile and radiant laugh for eight amazing years. “Miracles abound,” she writes in Stan Went Fishing, teaching us to see miracles along with her, even in the miracle of grief.
Manners and Me transmits many of the lessons Nancy learned from her mother and father and from the clients she served for over 30 years as an executive coach and management consultant. Many of these manners continue to be explored and honed at “Camp Nana,” the weeklong, summer camp that Nancy and her grandchildren create together each year. During “Camp Nana,” they explore nature, tell stories, and practice what it takes to get along and enjoy spending time together. They go to the beach and mountains of North Carolina, to the redwoods in California, and to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Nancy loves life, demands excellence, and appreciates the brilliance of others. Clear-eyed about facts, she brings grace, compassion, and humor to things we might rather sweep under the rug. Let yourself do lousy writing, she counsels, and we begin to notice textures, sounds, smells, and feelings we’ve kept at bay. Nothing changes, yet wechange. Sit in on a writing class and see for yourself.
In addition to guiding the consulting company she and Judith Underwood started in 1986, Nancy leads workshops and a writing course called The Red Truck Program. It’s all water drawn from the same well, quenching our thirst for joy, acceptance, and belonging. It’s a journey of heartfelt connections, unexpected pleasures, and blessed passages -- laughing, loving, and being awake to all of life.
Nancy Dorrier powerfully wages love through the way she lives, and her mission is to help others find their way to living from love, too.
She writes every. single. day.