Wind Shadow Press

The last weekend in April is reunion time at The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The Class of 1946 will be among those gathering and, as schoolmates gather to reminisce, Nancy will share her adventures by reading selections from her book.

In February Nancy will be on a South China Sea cruise. She will present two lectures during that voyage: “Eyewitness Stories: Manila from American Colony to Independence (1898-1946)” en route to Manila and “Voyagers in the South China Sea 1521-1977 (Spaniards, Filipinos, Americans, Japanese)” en route to North Borneo.

The following is a review posted on Amazon.com (November 4, 2010) of ENCOUNTERS: A Lifetime Crossing Cultural Frontiers (Kindle Edition) by retired school head, Anne-Marie Pierce.

I just clicked on the last page of Encounters: A Lifetime of Crossing Cultural Frontiers. My eyes are still teary from reading the tribute from the author’s son to both of his parents at his father’s memorial!

It was a delight to get to know three generations of such an interesting
family through those elegantly written pages. The seamless flow of the
narrative through Nancy Keeney Forster’s memories interwoven with her husband’s and others’ documents produced such a vivid tale that I felt transported with them in their peregrinations and adventures.

This book is clearly a “labor of love” in the literal sense of the word (Nancy wrote it after her husband’s Cliff accidental death), and a “tour de force” in its outcome, offering a personal account of important historical events and pertinent reflections on their current relevance. I also deeply appreciated the ubiquitous moral underpinnings. Encounters could be used equally effectively in a 20th century history class, a literature or a deontology course, but above all it is a delightful read!

—Anne-Marie Pierce

On December 11, 2010 Nancy will be presenting her book Encounters at Book Passage, Marin County’s beloved independent bookstore in Corte Madera.

Time: 3:00 PM

Location:
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd
Corte Madera, California 94925

Map

Nancy will be giving a reading of Encounters: a Lifetime Crossing Cultural Frontiers on November 15, 2010 from 7:00-8:30 PM as part of the Sausalito Library Speaker Series.

Cost: Free
Location: City Hall-Council Chambers
420 Litho Street
Sausalito, California 94965

Map and directions here.

On October 25th and 26th Nancy met with two book clubs, one in Lafayette, East of Oakland, and another in her hometown of Tiburon.

It was reunion weekend at Stanford University October 21-24 and Nancy joined about 150 classmates who were celebrating their 60th reunion. On Friday she was a member of a class panel, sharing their career experiences, adventures, and aspirations. Fellow panelists included Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and several successful venture capitalists and philanthropists. On Sunday alumni authors were featured in a “Meet and Greet” event at the Stanford Bookstore.

One of the greatest rewards for Nancy as this book has circulated, among strangers as well as friends and colleagues in the professional lives shared by the Forsters, is the gift of new stories. Members of her generation want to share with her the stories where their lives or the lives of their friends and neighbors intersect with events described in Encounters. Her children’s peers write to her that they have embarked on careers which are driven by passions similar to those which motivated Cliff Forster. Her Peace Corps grandson urges his fellow volunteers and their supervisors to emulate some of the USIS initiatives which his grandfather launched at his age. At their international conference in Miami, teachers in the International Baccalaureate program received lesson plans and purchased copies of the book to use with students in their middle and high school humanities and world history classes.

Nancy has a number of readings scheduled in the coming months:

August 31st she will be meeting east of San Francisco with women who formerly lived in Tokyo.

The next day, September 1st, she will speak at the Saratoga Library, south of San Francisco.

October 25th she will do a reading for the East Bay Stanford Women’s Association in Lafayette.

Another library reading is scheduled for November 15th in Sausalito, and December 11th she will be one of a group of Marin County writers featured at Book Passage (a beloved independent bookstore) in Corte Madera.

Carolyn Hill, who has reviewed Three Cups of Tea and Mandela’s Way for the Christian Science Monitor, sent the following to that paper on July 22nd, 2010.

ENCOUNTERS – A Lifetime Spent Crossing Cultural Frontiers by Nancy Keeney Forster. I could hardly put this book down not only because I could personally relate to so much in it but because of its value (it should be in) the hands of every official in Washington, D.C., every diplomat we send out, and every child old enough to be studying world history. Maybe Nancy didn’t intend this to be a love story but it is just that in so many ways…between a husband and wife and their love for all mankind. She has so skillfully taken notes left by Cliff, her husband, including internment as a child by the Japanese in the Philippines during WWII, and woven them into their many diplomatic assignments together in the world. I put this book in the same class as MANDELA’S WAY and Mortenson’s THREE CUPS OF TEA. It’s a must read for all peace lovers and problem solvers. It gave me a whole new spin on “war criminals.”