Andrea J. Nolan

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and growing up in Columbia, Maryland, Andrea Nolan spent the majority of her youth outside, seeking the wild in her suburban environment. She dwelled in the trees and the creeks, spending full days hiking the small streams that wove through Columbia, catching crayfish and minnows.

Andrea attended Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, drawn as much by the small riverside town as she was by the College's writing program. While at Washington College, Andrea helped form the school's Environmental Studies program, and began working summers for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, first as a general maintenance worker, installing roofs, painting buildings and driving pilings, and then as an educational intern at Great Fox Island, a small marsh island with an old hunting lodge which served as an education center for three-day residential programs.

Following college, Andrea worked briefly for the Forest Service in Nicolet National Forest before returning to Maryland to work for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation at their Clagett Farm Education center in Upper Marlboro, MD. Besides her duties as an educator, teaching courses on sustainable agriculture, watershed and Chesapeake Bay ecology, she also helped to run the 385-acre farm, which supported 85 head of cattle and two organic vegetable operations. This work helped to satisfy Andrea's dream of returning to the lost farm life of her mother's childhood, who was never prouder of Andrea than when she showed up for her mother's birthday late and spattered with manure and bit of blood, having been delayed by helping a young cow through a difficult birth.

After Clagett Farm, Andrea opened Amphibious Horizons, a sea kayaking guide service, rental operation and school. She ran the Annapolis based business for six years, guiding trips throughout the Chesapeake and in Baja, Mexico, teaching thousands of people how to kayak. During the time running Amphibious, Andrea watched waterspouts develop on hot Chesapeake afternoons; spotted hundreds of bald eagles, osprey and blue herons; swam with sea lions in Mexico; kayaked near wild horses in Assateague and paddled by thousands of miles of coastal shoreline.

After selling Amphibious Horizons, Andrea wrote two sea kayaking guidebooks, Sea Kayaking Maryland's Chesapeake Bay and Sea Kayaking Virginia. She also returned to writing fiction and is at work on a collection of connected stories, all based in the Chesapeake Bay. She was making her living painting houses, installing tile and working as a bookkeeping consultant, until she grew tired of working just to pay the mortgage. Andrea sold her house and most of her belongings, except for two kayaks, some clothes and about 700 books, and has since focused on living a simple life centered on writing and teaching.

Andrea completed her MFA in Fiction at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and is currently living in Maine and is at work completing a collection of short stories. She is a member of the Author's Guild and the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment.