Local author Nancy Thode, longtime Greenwich resident now residing in Stamford, has recently been awarded a 2026 Silver IPPY Award in the annual Independent Publisher Book Awards, recognizing excellence in independent and self-published books.
Her prize-winning biography, Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head, is about her mother, pioneering feminist American writer Ann Head, and an important early mentor to novelist Pat Conroy.
Nancy grew up with a dynamic family. Her father, Howard Head, was an American aeronautical engineer and inventor who revolutionized winter sports by creating Head Skis, the first successful metal laminate ski. Later in life, he transformed tennis by inventing and patenting the oversized aluminum and graphite Prince tennis racquet. But Nancy chose to write her mother’s biography, celebrating her strikingly unconventional life, telling of her personal and literary struggles in such depth and candor that readers say “the biography reads like a novel.”
After divorcing inventor Howard Head, Ann Head supported herself and her daughter, Nancy, entirely through her writing—an extraordinary accomplishment for a woman of her generation. She was an early feminist voice and published more than 50 works. Her best-known book, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, became a bestseller and remained on school reading lists for more than 50 years, introducing generations of young readers to the subject of teenage pregnancy.
As a teacher at Beaufort High School in South Carolina, Ann Head was an early mentor to Pat Conroy, one of America’s most beloved storytellers, best known for The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, Beach Music, and South of Broad. Conroy later wrote about Head in his autobiography, describing the profound influence she had on his life and writing, “Every time I sell a book, I put a rose on her grave.” Thode’s biography includes more than 20 pages of previously unpublished correspondence between Head and the young Conroy, including his early poems and letters expressing his admiration for the teacher who encouraged his writing.
Conroy’s influence on Thode’s was personal as well as literary. Thirty years ago, he sat in Nancy’s living room, reminiscing about Ann and lamenting that her work had faded from view.
Then he turned to Thode. “You should write about your mother.”
The words stayed with her.
The book is available to purchase HERE at Dogwood Books online.