Nancy Luenn grew up in an untidy house full of books, cats and children. "From the time I first learned to read," she reports, "I was a bookworm. My family didn't have a television, so my mother read aloud to us each evening. The books I remember the best are magical ones, like The Hobbit, the Narnia books and Lloyd Alexander's books about Prydain. I also loved books about animals."

"My brothers and I told each other stories in the games we played. We created worlds for our toys to inhabit and cities full of paper mice. My friends and I put on plays for our families. We pretended the pond in my yard was the ocean and rowed across it to England in a boat named Pooh.

"As I grew older, too old to play with toys, I learned to play with words instead. In high school, I kept a journal and wrote poetry. When I started writing children's books, I discovered I knew a lot about writing already, because of the books I had read as a child and the games I had played with my brothers and friends."

Growing up in Los Angeles, Nancy learned to treasure the natural world on camping trips to the mountains and deserts of California, and through frequent visits to museums and the zoo. Her parents taught her the names of plants and animals, and how to be respectful of the earth. Concern for the health of our planet inspired her book Mother Earth.

Nancy Luenn earned her B.A. from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. While at Evergreen, she pursued her interests in art, education and natural history. She became an avid whitewater kayaker, learned to ski and rock climb, and lived in a tipi. Nancy began writing children's books while working for the U.S. Forest Service the summer before her last year of college.

Ms. Luenn's books for children range from picture books to young adult novels.
They reflect her interest in folklore and mythology, history and other cultures, fantasy and and the natural world.

"Writing teachers advise to 'write what you know.' I write about the ideas that compel me. Usually that means a lot of research. For Nessa's Fish and Nessa's Story I read Arctic expedition reports and talked to experts about wolves and bears.
For Goldclimbers I visited a metal-working lab. And for Squish! A Wetland Walk I studied and visited wetlands. This is a part of the process I always enjoy."

Nancy Luenn has been a guest speaker at schools and conferences in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. She has visited schools in Venezuela and taught workshops for teachers in Australia. Currently, she is working in the library at Yakima Valley Community College. She enjoys gardening, skiing, reading, listening to opera, and canoeing on lakes and whitewater rivers. She and her husband live with their cats in Yakima, Washington.