{"product_id":"darkness-and-light","title":"Darkness and Light","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNancy Jo Allen\u003c\/strong\u003e was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and moved to Wisconsin where she spent thirty-four years owning and operating a few businesses of her own before closing one to work with her husband in another business as vice-president, production manager and department head. It was in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where Allen earned a baccalaureate, majoring in English Literature with a double minor in creative writing and theatre. She was inducted as a member of Sigma Gamma Zeta II honor society in her undergraduate years and was the recipient of the Clara B. Small Scholarship. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAllen divorced in 2005 and was accepted to a graduate program through Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing degree with the emphasis on playwriting. She was a student editor for \u003cem\u003eThe Louisville Review\u003c\/em\u003e and won first place in a Metroversity short fiction contest while attending the graduate program. Allen’s graduate creative thesis was read by both the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and by the August Wilson and the Playwrights’ Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe quit her job and sold her condominium to move to Minnesota, where she spent the last year of her mother’s life with her while working with senior services. After her mother’s death, Allen enrolled in a program that earned her an Associates of Applied Science degree, allowing her to be a certified and licensed practitioner working as an Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA\/L) in a variety of allied health facilities. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe began writing poetry in the fall of 2013. Allen married again in 2016, and she and her husband have published several collections of poetry separately since then. Allen’s photographs, short stories and fiction have been published in a variety of journals both nationally and internationally. Her poetry collections were published in spring of 2021, and October 2023. They are entitled \u003cem\u003eWrinkles in Time and in Love,\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWild and Tame\u003c\/em\u003e respectively. They both are available through Kelsay Books and Amazon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAllen currently lives in Columbia, Missouri, with her husband Terry and their dog Jayden. She is the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of four boys.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaperback: 106 pages\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Kelsay Books (July 6, 2024)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAward:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMissouri Writers' Guild Show Me Your Best (Second Place, 2025)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Kelsay Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43220579024958,"sku":"tas1787286997531","price":14.72,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0620\/0075\/8846\/files\/darkness-and-light_1.jpg?v=1787287003","url":"https:\/\/urbanglamboutique.shop\/products\/darkness-and-light","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}