Nanci Kincaid Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Nanci Kincaid is an American novelist of literary fiction who was born in Tallahassee, Florida. She spent her childhood in Richmond and went to Huguenot High School.

After graduating from high school, she attended several colleges including Athens State College, University of Wyoming, and Virginia Tech from where she got her bachelor’s degree. Later, she went to the University of Alabama where she got her Masters in Fine Art in creative fiction.

Nanci would then publish her debut novel “Crossing Blood” in 1992 and has since published more than half a dozen works of fiction. In addition to her single-standing novels, she has also published “Pretending the Bed is a Raft,” which would then be adapted into “My Life Without Me,” the film.

Her short stories and poetry have been published in several anthologies and periodicals. She has also been a literature and creative writing instructor at the University of Arizona, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Alabama.
Earlier on, she was married to Al Kincaid the former football coach of Arkansas State University and the University of Wyoming. With Dick Tomey whom she married in 1997 and lived with in California, Arizona, and Hawaii, she had four children and five grandchildren.

As for how Nanci Kincaid came to love stories and storytelling, she credits it to her childhood spent in the South. It was in Richmond Virginia that she developed a passion for words and stories that she would then give life.

During her childhood years, money was scarce but words were plenty and to some point were the currency of the culture. Kincaid also loved the way the truth was hidden in language, as it was artfully camouflaged by the people who told stories.

She would then spend much of her later life listening to stories and reading, which she would then transform into her very popular works of fiction. Nowadays, she gets her inspiration from the amazing external voices around her and sometimes an inner voice.
While she is known for penning novels with themes of forgiveness, the power of place gender, and race, she has said that most of her subjects choose her rather than her choosing them.

“Verbena” by Nanci Kincaid is a work that tells the story of Verbena Martin Eckert McHale, who makes her home in small-town America. She is an indomitable woman whose life is damned by the bad luck and bad behavior of her two husbands.
When Bobby Eckert her first husband dies in a road accident, she is left with a big empty hole in her heart, a little bit of insurance, a small house with a mortgage, and five kids.

The hole in her heart is jagged around the edges as her husband had died with a girlfriend she never knew about. She is struggling to deal with the betrayal but still has to deal with taking care of five kids which is sometimes too much for her.
Nonetheless, her moral center and backbone never bends and by the time she is free to once again join the romance world, she will be very clear on what she wants. When the right circumstances arise and she finds the right man, she does not hesitate and gets married to Lucky McHale. But soon after the man goes missing.

It is a vibrant story of a strong, funny, extraordinary, sexy, and headstrong woman you cannot help but cheer for.

Nanci Kincaid’s novel “Eat, Drink, and Be From Mississippi” is a thrilling work that tells the story of Courtney and her younger brother Truely Noonan who were born and raised in Mississippi’s Hinds County. Both of them went to college and then settled in California.
Courtney then got married to a very prosperous real estate developer while Truely got married to a teacher who is all about saving the world. Both siblings are happy with their lot in life but while they remain in contact they are never that close.

After several years, their parents pass on and they both lose their marriages. Truely has a relationship of convenience with a woman named Shauna while Courtney gets obsessed with plastic surgery.

When Shauna’s brother gets a serious injury while in Iraq, Truely realizes that he loves her more than he thought and rushes to console her. But by the time he gets there, her old boyfriend is there and he might be too late for the party.

Things get interesting when Arnold a shy black kid is introduced to Truely and Courtney will do anything to help her brother with the kid as they all become family. It is not long before they discover that to move into the future they need to let go of some dark secrets in the past.

“Balls” by Nanci Kincaid is a brilliant work of fiction that follows the life and times of a man named Mac Gibbs.

The work begins with the lead as the quarterback of a college football team that just cannot stop winning. Even though he is a good player, the NFL does not believe he is good enough to make the draft. However, he is not bothered by the snub as he believes he was meant to be a great coach rather than a great player.

He starts out coaching high school football before proceeding to Alabama University where he soon becomes the head coach. Working as a coach he recruits and develops some great players further enhancing the winning reputation of the college. Much of the time, he spent his time courting sponsors and in public relations.

However, he works too hard on football which is his passion and this strains the relationship he has with his wife and children.

The structure of the work is similar to that of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver as much of the story is told from the point of view of his family and friends. From their perspective, we get deep insights into Mac Gibbs’ obsession that causes him to lose his perspective on what is most important in life – family.