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Fast Facts
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Although she was born in Nevada, Nevada Barr actually received her name from a favorite character in one of her father's books.
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Nevada named her sleuth after her husband's boss. Nevada simply loved the name "Anna Pigeon" and decided to use it in her novels.
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Nevada's first published novel, Bittersweet, did not feature Anna Pigeon.
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Nevada writes her books in longhand and, unlike some writers, has no special time or place in which she performs her work. Rather than wait for inspiration, she just sits down and begins to write.
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All of the Anna Pigeon novels have taken approximately the same amount of time to research and write because Barr is given one-year contracts. She finds this tight schedule stressful, but it helps her be more productive.
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Some of Nevada's favorite authors are Jane Austen, Dick Francis, Charles Dickens, Anne Perry and Elizabeth Peters.
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Bio
Nevada Barr was born in the small town of Yerington, Nevada on March 1, 1952. Both her parents were pilots and mechanics and her sister, Molly, continued the tradition by becoming a pilot for USAir. Barr attended college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and graduate school at the University of California at Irvine, receiving her BA in speech and drama and her MFA in acting. Her theatrical career began in New York City, where she served as a member of the Classic Stage Company and performed in several off-Broadway plays. Barr spent five years in New York before moving to Minneapolis. She continued her work in the theater but also branched out into other areas of show business. In fact, she appeared in a number of commercials and industrial training films, in addition to doing voiceovers for radio.
It is around this time that Barr became interested in conservation and wildlife. During the summers she worked as a park ranger for a number of national parks --- Isle Royale in Michigan, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. Barr proceeded to launch what would ultimately prove to be a prolific writing career. She wrote and presented campfire stories, taught storytelling and served as a travel writer and restaurant critic. Her first novel was published in 1983; titled Bittersweet, it focuses on the love shared between two women.
Following this effort, Barr turned to writing mysteries --- and this is when Anna Pigeon was born. The series very much reflects Barr's interest in the environmental movement and her love of the wilderness. Barr even parallels her protagonist, Anna Pigeon, in several ways. Both women are in their forties and are (or have been) law enforcement rangers who fled the big city in favor of the National Park Service --- and they both just happen to have a sister named Molly. In each novel, Anna tries to solve a mystery, but equally as vital to the plot are the particular settings in which the stories take place. In fact, some of the events occur in parks where Barr herself had once worked. The first Anna Pigeon novel, Track of the Cat, takes place at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. In it, a ranger's body is discovered and it appears that a lion killed him, but Anna Pigeon soon uncovers the truth. Barr's mystery debut was well received by critics and was awarded two honors: the 1994 Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 1993 and the 1994 Anthony Award for Best Novel of 1993.
This initial success led to a second Anna Pigeon novel in 1994. A Superior Death is loosely based on Barr's experiences as a boat patrol ranger on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Her third effort, Ill Wind, takes place in Mesa Verde, Colorado, where Barr worked as a law enforcement ranger for two seasons. In the book, Ms. Pigeon finds a series of not-so-coincidental accidents, including the death of a child and the murder of a friend. The fourth book in the series, Firestorm, centers on a raging and suspicious forest fire in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. It won the prestigious French Prix du Roman award and was nominated for an Anthony Award in 1996.
Additional Anna Pigeon novels followed these honors. In Endangered Species, Anna investigates the mysterious crash of a drug interdiction plane at Cumberland Island National Seashore, an isolated island off the coast of Georgia. The following year produced Blind Descent, in which Anna must solve a crime deep in Lechuguilla Caverns in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Next came Liberty Falling in 1999, which takes Anna to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island's National Monument.
Barr's next two novels both made the New York Times bestseller list: Deep South, which takes place on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi and Blood Lure, set in Montana's Glacier National Park. Anna Pigeon returned to the Natchez Trace Parkway for her tenth adventure, Hunting Season. This was the first novel in which Barr used a setting that had already been featured in the series. Barr's latest Anna Pigeon novel is titled Flashback and is set in the Dry Tortugas National Park off the coast of Key West, Florida. As Anna is investigating the cause of a mysterious boat explosion, she begins to unravel an eerie connection between the current turmoil and past troubles that were documented in letters that her great-great aunt wrote.
After serving on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, Barr retired from the National Park Service in order to write full time. She currently lives with her husband in Clinton, Mississippi.
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