Nancy Nordhoff

Nancy Nordhoff comes from a long line of philanthropists, yet her own brand of hands-on, roll up your sleeves generosity makes her a true original.

While Nancy has dipped her hand into countless ventures helping people and communities, she is best-known for founding Hedgebrook, a writer’s retreat for women on Whidbey Island…a simple description that does not begin to describe Hedbebrook’s positive ripple effect felt ‘round the world.

Raised in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood, Nancy was the youngest of three children. Generations of her family are recognized for their charitable endeavors, including her grandmother, Jeannette Skinner, a founder of Seattle Children’s Hospital. Nancy’s brother, D.E. Ned Skinner, was a key figure in the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, an early investor in the Seattle Seahawks and a great supporter of the arts. Her sister, Sally Behnke, was one of the community’s most influential leaders, with a particular interest in serving Seattle’s health and medical organizations.

Nancy’s path into the family’s ‘good works’ business started with an adventurous twist. After school, she obtained her pilot’s license and flew a single engine Piper Tripacer across the country during her early days of philanthropy.

Hedgebrook came decades later, but the idea for a retreat for women writers may have been planted at a young age. Nancy went to Seattle’s St. Nicholas, a private all-girls school, then on to earn a degree in chemistry from Mount Holyoke women’s college. She carries a deep personal commitment to nurturing women and supporting their vision. With Hedgebrook, Nancy created a community in which women can thrive and raise their voices.

“I’m a person who’s been in the not-for-profit world most of my life,” notes Nancy. Over the years, she’s seen that most great ideas never get off the shelf. “This is one that went into action,” she says of Hedgebrook. “And that, to me, has really been the best accomplishment in my life…outside of the three children I gave birth to,” she adds with a smile. Nancy’s children have followed in her philanthropic footsteps, and generously support a number of Puget Sound nonprofits.

“In August 1988, Hedgebrook opened to its first session of writers,” states Hedgebrook’s Executive Director, Amy Wheeler. “Over time, nearly 2000 writers have lived and worked in Hedgebrook’s cottages, generating thousands of novels, poems, plays, screenplays, memoirs, works of non-fiction. Literally millions of people have experienced the work that has been generated in our cottages.”

Hedgebrook’s 48 acres includes pastures, woods, streams and beautiful vistas. Photo by Julie O’Brien

It all began on an old dairy farm on Whidbey Island, overlooking Useless Bay, with a sweeping view across Puget Sound to Mount Rainier. It’s a beautiful place, filled with meadows and forest, streams and wildlife.

At a transformative time in her life, Nancy left her volunteer projects behind, bought a van and drove the country seeking to find her place in the world. She was looking for a place to call home.

“I was in a time of change,” recalls Nancy. “Change was coming, and I wanted to be anchored with a new place.” The Whidbey farm appealed to her because it had everything she wanted: “It had pastures, trees, old buildings. So it was perfect for feeling at home.”

But as she walked the land, she felt it telling her it wanted to be something else.

“It was too much for me,” says Nancy. “The land was too large, there was too much to be done. But it was a place that really cried out to be used. So the question was what to do. And the answer came: women writers, women’s voices…”

“What I think is so extraordinary about Nancy Nordhoff is that she was seeking home and she chose instead to create a home for other women,” exclaims Amy.

The original plan was simple: a few cozy cottages and lots of time and space to write.

“I wanted Hedgebrook to be family-like, friendly and welcoming,” says Nancy.

The retreat is designed to put the writers’ needs and comforts at the center, including the Amish-inspired cottages that serve as home during their stay. Photo by Tom Marks

Working with her friend, writer Sheryl Feldman, and a group of architects, artisans and advisors, Nancy transformed the farm into a 48-acre haven for women writers. The retreat was designed to put the writer’s needs and comforts at the center of the process. Seven cottages were crafted in the Amish “post-and-beam” style to feature writing and reading areas, a wood-burning stove for warmth, a small kitchen and a sleeping loft, with thoughtful touches such as stained glass windows to catch and prism the light, and fixtures designed by local artisans.

Nancy worked alongside the builders and craftspeople, siting the cottages herself to ensure that a writer can see the lights of another cottage through the trees at night when she is burning the midnight oil. “So she’s in solitude, but not alone.”

Nancy believes it is important for women to trust their own instincts and rely on their own resourcefulness. With that in mind, she wants the women at Hedgebrook to know how to build fires in their cottages. “The first fire is laid for the writer. After that, she’s on her own!”

But everything else is taken care of, including meals. The women fill their time as they choose. Nancy encourages them to connect with the land and nature while in residence—walking through the woods or to nearby Double Bluff beach, spending time in the garden, writing at a bench by the pond, or soaking in the views.

A writer’s time is her own. The only requirement is that everyone meet for dinner at the property’s old farmhouse, to join the community of women.

The chef prepares dinner and clears the dishes at the end of the meal so that writers can stay engaged in conversation. “It’s amazing how hard it is for most women to let someone else clear and clean her dirty dishes!” observes Amy.

“I started using the phrase radical hospitality to describe what happens here,” she explains, “because I felt like we needed a way to talk about the transformative experience that women writers have when they are nurtured in this way.” All women have to do while they are at Hedgebrook is to be a writer. They come to Hedgebrook for their work and that’s such a rare experience for women who are used to nurturing others.

Writers do not pay for the “Writers in Residence” program (stays run from two- to six-weeks), so being able to afford the experience is not an obstacle. There is a commitment to supporting women of color and underrepresented voices. Hedgebrook has had famous, established writers, and also welcomes those who have never been published. Writers come to Whidbey Island from all over the world, from all walks of life. Hedgebrook’s mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories shape our culture. Their purpose is equality for women’s voices to help achieve a just and peaceful world.

In Hedgebrook’s early days, Nancy did almost everything herself. She picked up the writers from the ferry and brought them to the retreat. She settled them in their cottages and saw many of them burst into tears when they first set foot in those beautiful little houses in the woods. She worked in the garden and even prepared some meals.

“I’ve been Executive Director for a decade now, and I’m also an alumna,” says Amy. “One of the great gifts of working with Hedgebrook is getting to work so closely with Nancy. I’m in my 50’s now, and Nancy was around my age when she founded Hedgebrook. She’s a mentor to me in so many facets of life – the ways she brings people together for common good, her empathy…her generosity of spirit.”

Amy describes Nancy as down-to-earth and pragmatic, someone who doesn’t seek the spotlight. “For years, she drove an old beat-up Toyota pickup – until her partner Lynn insisted she buy a new one for safety. She loves rolling up her sleeves and jumping in to work with others. Her eyes light up when she talks about building the cottages in 1988, and we have photos of her in a hard hat on the site working right alongside the construction workers.”

She adds, “Nancy is a feminist, an avid reader, a proud mother and grandmother, and has been with her partner, artist Lynn Hays, for nearly 30 years.”

Nancy’s vision continues to influence all aspects of Hedgebrook, from the profound to the simple. Nancy loves cookies, and the cookie jar in the Farmhouse kitchen – where the writers gather for dinner – is never empty. It’s a simple message of attention and abundance: “Someone thought of you before you arrived, and the cupboard is full.”

MORE INFORMATION

Since 1988, Hedgebrook has hosted nearly 2000 writers, including Gloria Steinem (left). Natalie Baszile (right) worked on her debut novel, QUEEN SUGAR, while at Hedgebrook. It has been made into a TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey

• A very small sampling of Hedgebrook alumna include: Gloria Steinem; U.S. Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal (the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives is also a writer); Ursula LeGuin; Karen Joy Fowler; Jane Hamilton; Deborah Harkness; Annette Gordon-Reed; Dorothy Allison; Laila Lalami; Jane Alexander and Natalie Baszile (her debut novel QUEEN SUGAR has been made into a TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey).

• Hedgebrook’s annual event EQUIVOX is on March 26th at Herban Feast in Seattle. This year features novelist Natalie Baszile, author of QUEEN SUGAR. For information, visit www.Hedgebrook.org or call 206-325-6773.

• Mark your calendar for Hedgebrook’s free annual open house: September 9, 2017. Tour the grounds, visit a cottage, enjoy live music and tasty refreshments.

• In addition to the Writers in Residence program, Hedbebrook opens the retreat to more writers through educational programs, master classes, day and weekend writing salons that are paid experiences. To learn more about writing programs, call 360-321-4786 or visit www.Hedgebrook.org.

• Nancy holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Mount Holyoke. She was chosen as Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and for the Women of Valor Award by US Senator Maria Cantwell. Hedgebrook won the 2016 Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award for Arts & Innovation

• Hedgebrook has transitioned from a private foundation to a nonprofit literary arts organization. Want to help? Visit www.hedgebrook.org/giving-options/. Nancy also founded Whidbey Island’s nonprofit Goosefoot (www.goosefoot.org)