Nancy Chadwick grew up in a northern suburb of Chicago. Deerfield was marked by four corners where she learned about home and about making connections to it. They would later become subjects in her writing. After receiving a journalism degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Nancy wanted to write mini stories to create ads for clients. Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago, her first job out of school, would be that place. After working a decade in the advertising agency business, and in international corporate banking, she became a writer, seizing inspiration from her years living in Chicago and San Franscisco, and from the many meanderings through the woods of any forest. Her essays have appeared in The Magic of Memoir, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Writer’s Digest, and Women Writers, Women’s Books as well as blogs by the Chicago Writers Association Write City, Brevity, and About Write. Under the Birch Tree, A Memoir of Discovering Connections and Finding Home (2018, The Wisdom of The Willow (2024) and Mercy Town (2025) are by She Writes Press. When not busy walking in the natural world, she is busy with her hands, knitting, baking, and gardening.