Jan. 5, 2021

Suffolk (Va.) News-Herald writer Rachel Wartian wrote about “Tall” and the stories Nancy Stancill tells about her parents, who were longtime residents of Suffolk. The online article is here. A picture of the article published in the newspaper Jan. 6 is below.

Jan. 3, 2021

Lily Chubb at the Daily Tar Heel at UNC Chapel Hill published an article about DTH alumna Nancy Stancill’s memoir, Tall.

Read the news article online here. A PDF of the article is here.

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By Lily Chubb
January 3, 2021 | 7:46pm EST
headline: “UNC alumna Nancy Stancill writes memoir detailing life as an investigative reporter”

UNC and Daily Tar Heel alumna Nancy Stancill’s career in investigative journalism inspired her to write two mystery novels and, most recently, a memoir.

Stancill’s memoir, “Tall: Love and Journalism in a Six-foot World,” was published on Nov. 24, 2020, and covers Stancill’s career as well as her personal life.

“I just thought it would be a good place to examine my life so far and maybe leave something of value to my 3-year-old granddaughter,” Stancill said.

Stancill was born in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and moved to Radford, Virginia, at the age of 8. She attended UNC from 1967 to 1971, a time in which both the nation and the University were fraught with protest and change.

Stancill worked at The Daily Tar Heel during her time at UNC, which she described as a good and bad experience.

“I remember one day I was allowed to interview the chancellor, and I was so excited,” she said. “And then there was the incident where one of the top reporters asked me to sharpen his pencils, which was very obnoxious.”

During her first year at UNC, Stancill lived under rules specifically for women that were punishable by expulsion if broken. The one she said was most infuriating was “closed study,” which mandated that first-year women had to be in their rooms studying from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on weeknights, and was later eliminated by Stancill’s sophomore year.

After graduating from UNC in 1971, Stancill worked at newspapers in Virginia and California before moving to Houston, Texas, with her husband.

Stancill then began her 15-year career for the Houston Chronicle in 1978, where she worked her way up to the investigative team. She said her biggest story was about a variety of misdeeds at a community college in Killeen, Texas, including that the administration was mismanaging money.

“That was the only time I was really afraid for my safety,” she said. “Someone who blew the whistle on this college drowned, and I was told by sources, too, that I was being followed. Someone sent me a wanted poster that I was in and said that the administration should know if I ever stepped foot on campus.”

Don Mason, who was the principal editor on that story, said that Stancill exhibited great bravery in her reporting.

“I knew all the stuff she was doing over there in Killeen and some of the other projects she worked at, but I don’t think I appreciated how much personal danger she felt,” Mason said. “She’s brave, I mean, she did what a reporter does, and it was not always comfortable.”

Stancill left Houston in 1993 and joined the investigative team at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina.

For a story called “Starving the Wife,” Stancill investigated divorce cases in which husbands would wait a long time to settle, during which the wives were left in poverty and forced to accept much less than they deserved. She used computer analysis to determine that the average case was taking more than two years to settle.

Her story pushed the state to change some of the rules on divorce cases and caused the judges in Mecklenburg County to change some of their procedures and to institute mediation.

“There were a variety of reforms from that series,” she said. “It was probably the best thing I did there.”

After she left the Observer, she lived in London for three years with her husband and spent time traveling. She decided to write her first novel, “Saving Texas,” about a young journalist who becomes involved in investigating a secessionist gubernatorial candidate.

After her first novel was a success, she got a creative writing degree through the University of Tampa’s master’s program, which resulted in her thesis and second book, “Winning Texas.”

Stancill’s readers have praised her for her bravery in writing about personal traumas as well as her career in her recent memoir.

Stancill’s former editor, Steve Gunn, said that Stancill’s memoir is entertaining and gives useful advice to aspiring journalists.

“I really do think it should be required reading for young journalists, because it’s about both big stories and all that, but also how you balance a career in your personal life,” Gunn said.

I really appreciate those of you who have bought and read “Tall: Love and Journalism in a Six-foot World.” I have been so pleased and humbled by the response.

Now I’m asking for one more thing:

If you liked the book, could you call up its listing on Amazon and Goodreads and leave a few sentences for a review. It doesn’t have to be long at all.

Thanks in advance for doing this and thank you for letting me mention this to all friends.

“Tall” is available at Amazon, other online sources such as B&N, and Charlotte’s Park Road books, both online and in the store.

 

Nov. 3, 2020

Happy Election Day! Storied Charlotte is a blog run by Mark West, professor of Engish and former chair of the UNCC Department of English. Here’s what he wrote about Tall. Read it here on his blogsite.

The Story of a Tall Girl Who Became an Investigative Journalist
November 02, 2020 by Mark West

For long-time readers of The Charlotte Observer, Nancy Stancill’s name might seem familiar, for she worked as an award-winning investigative reporter and editor for the Charlotte paper for fifteen years, beginning in 1993 and ending in 2009. Although she retired from her career as a journalist, she has never stopped writing. In 2013, she published the first of two mystery novels set in Texas, where she lived before moving to Charlotte. This month, her publisher, Black Rose Writing, is releasing her memoir. Titled Tall: Love and Journalism in a Six-foot World, this fast-paced memoir explores how Nancy’s status as a six-foot tall woman has impacted her journalistic career, her relationships, and her sense of self. For more information about Tall and Nancy’s other books, please click on the following link: https://www.nancystancill.com/

One might assume that the process of writing a memoir would be a solitary endeavor, but not for Nancy. While writing Tall, she found support from former colleagues who worked with her at The Charlotte Observer, various writing teachers and mentors, and fellow writers she has met in classes and workshops. Nancy sees herself as a member of a community of writers. I recently contacted Nancy and asked her how this community of writers contributed to the writing of her memoir. Here is what she sent to me:

“My biggest help in getting Tall done was a weekly class I took several times called “Under Construction.” The class is offered by Maureen Ryan Griffin each fall and spring with a few sessions in the summer. Maureen is a longtime prize-winning writing teacher who is also a gifted poet and writer. The classes usually consist of 6-8 advanced writers who are working on long-term projects. What Maureen’s class did for me was to give me deadlines. I knew that once a week I had to present a new or revised chapter to the class. My fellow classmates would offer valuable, gentle feedback. That was enormously helpful.

“Since I’m a former Charlotte Observer investigative reporter and assigning editor, I use my former colleagues to get good feedback as well. I normally meet with two writers every week where we do parallel writing. That means essentially that we sit at a table and work on our own projects, stopping to talk occasionally.

“I also have several excellent mentors. Poet Dannye Romine Powell has been an invaluable help on my two published novels set in Texas as well as my memoir. She has read all of them and given generous feedback. Another wonderful source has been former Observer copy editor Steve Johnston. Steve copyedited Tall and also takes care of my website. I don’t know what I would do without him.

“There is plenty of help available to writers in Charlotte. I took a poetry class offered last spring by Charlotte Lit. Dannye Powell was teaching it. Charlotte Lit is also a great source for daylong seminars and for long-term programs for writers looking to start or finish novels or memoirs. The writers’ organization offers high-quality programs and will send out notices to members. Membership is low-cost and well worth it.

“Tall tells the story of my life, but many people played a role in the writing of my memoir.”

With the publication of Tall: Love and Journalism in a Six-foot World, Nancy joins several other Charlotte writers who have recently published memoirs. This group includes Judy Goldman, the author of Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap; Patrice Gopo, the author of All the Colors We Will See: Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding Our Way; Molly Grantham, the author of The Juggle Is Real: The Off-Camera Life of an On-Camera Mom; and Tommy Tomlinson, the author of The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man’s Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America. Like these other Charlotte memoirists, Nancy shares a personal story, but in the process, she and her fellow memoirists contribute to the varied narratives that make up Storied Charlotte.