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Nancy Mairs was born in Long Beach, California, and grew up in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. She received an AB in English literature from Wheaton College (Massachusetts). From 1966 to 1972 she worked as a technical editor at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the MIT Press, and the Harvard Law School. In 1972 she moved to Tucson, Arizona, and taught high school and college composition courses while studying for an MFA in creative writing (poetry) and a PhD in English literature, which she was awarded in 1984. In the same year, her book of poems In All the Rooms of the Yellow House received first prize for poetry in the Western States Book Awards competition.