Nancy Hilliard Joyce created her first book, a memoir, to help her son who was having difficulties in school in his third-grade year. After attending a talk by former Stanford dean and author Julie Lythcott-Haims, Joyce says, “A wave of overwhelming emotion and memories of my painful childhood academic experience began to flow over me. I began writing my book that same night.”
A Greenville (SC) native, Joyce is art curator at the Omni Grove Park Inn and an artist who produces large-scale commission works. “The most difficult thing about writing a book about myself was the complete and utter unabashed stance I took on my relationship and experience with my traditional, private-school education,” she says. “As an artist, it was grueling to relive it for the purpose of freeing my son from the same constraints that were held against me.”
She hopes the book will be helpful to parents, psychiatrists and educators, as well as students seeking direction. “Anyone who beats to the rhythm of their own drum would be drawn to the message within this book,” Joyce says.
The Education of Little Me: A Short Memoir of Connecting Passion with Purpose, September, 2018, memoir, paperback $9.58, Kindle $9.58, by Nancy Hilliard Joyce. To learn more, visit NancyJoyceGallery.com.
