NAN FRY

NAN MALLET FRY
On September 23, 2016, poet and teacher Nan Fry died unexpectedly of congestive heart failure at Sibley Memorial Hospital. She was 71. Born in Kansas City, MO, she grew up in West Hartford, CT, and earned a B.A. in English from Wells College, an M.A. in Medieval Studies from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in English from Yale. After teaching periodically at American University and University of Maryland, she joined the full-time faculty at the Corcoran School of Art + Design in 1983, and remained there until her retirement in 2005. She also taught many workshops at The Writer's Center of Bethesda from 1980 on and for several years served as a Maryland Poet in the Schools. And for 10 years she coordinated a poetry reading series at Westmoreland Congregational Church. She published a chapbook of Anglo-Saxon riddle translation-Say What I Am Called-and won an award from Washington Writers' Publishing House, which published her full-length collection of poems Relearning the Dark. Her work appeared in many magazines such as Plainsong, The Wallace Stevens Journal, Poet Lore, The Healing Muse (SUNY), Beltway, and The Journal of Mythic Arts. She also contributed to several anthologies, including The Creative Process (St. Martin's) and Discovering Literature, 2nd Edition (Simon and Schuster).She was the daughter of Leonard C. Mallet and Elida (Olive) Kay Mallet of West Hartford. She is survived by her husband, David M. Fry of Cabin John, MD; cousin, John Benda of Andover, CT; cousin, Gail CdeBaca of Albuquerque, NM; nephew, Michael Spencer of Amawalk, NY; niece, Michelle Ellenwood of Bedford, VA; and sister-in-law, Ann Lowman of Sutherland, VA.A Memorial Celebration will be held at 5 p.m. on December 3 at the Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD. Any donations in her honor should be made out to The Writer's Center.