NANCY DAVIDOFF KELTON

RETIRING FROM TEACHING by Nancy Davidoff Kelton- April 2026 issue   I stopped teaching in 2024. I began in 1971 when I graduated from college.  My first job was at a public school on New York’s Lower Eastside as an Above Quota Teacher, an in-house substitute.  I covered for absent teachers before outside subs were called. Many of the students acted out. Getting outside subs at our school was difficult. Few subs came back a second time. As the AQT, I brought YERTLE THE TURTLE,

February 2026 By Nancy Davidoff Kelton To my hairdresser – Since my first appointment when you didn’t laugh or say “dream on” when I asked you to make me look like Michelle Pfeiffer, you have been shaping my hair very well, making it easy to comb out after shampooing or swimming without using a dryer. I also appreciate that even though you do a lot of hair coloring you have strongly advised me to avoid touching up the grey because it is growing in beautifully. I think so too

(This was a blog post several years ago). Spring semester started. We’re cookin’. Moving along in great, surprising ways. A question one of my favorite people on the planet, recently asked, “How come you became a teacher?” coupled with several occurrences has inspired me to write a magazine piece on my 50 years of teaching.   Here’s some of what I’ll flesh out:   In a New School multi-gender restroom, a young man at the next sink took a copy of my book, ‘Writing from Persona

This is my article published in the January, 2026 Village View. Happy New Year to you all. Love, Nancy My 36 Resolutions for 2026 By Nancy Davidoff Kelton 1. Go to the gym three or four times a week. 2. Use as many machines as I do towels. 3. Do not count by threes when I do sit-ups. 4. Do all the stretches on the list my physical therapist gave me. 5. Do not expect the stretches to make me taller. 6. Do not work out at the gym when my husband is working out there. He burns m

This is a revision of a blog I posted several years ago.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all.   I am thankful I don’t have to line up in size places. Or take SATs. I am thankful that the farmers market is a block away. And that I can walk there, to the theater and to my favorite restaurants and bookstores. Alone or with my husband, whom I am thankful for every day. I am thankful I can walk. I am thankful for work that engages and excites me. I am thankful for the loyalty and suppo

BY NANCY DAVIDOFF KELTON This article is in the November 2025 issue of The Village View A few weeks ago, I graduated from physical therapy after six months of treatment for sciatica. Now, except for getting out of bed in the morning, standing up quickly from a chair, or stepping down from the curb, which often give me a quick sharp pain in my spine, I am fine. When I stretch before getting out of bed in the morning, once in bed for the night, and when I keep my tummy and but

OCTOBER 2025 My Most Transformative Birthday By Nancy Davidoff Kelton Author Nancy Kelton as a little girl with curly hair. Photo courtesy of Nancy Kelton. I celebrated my birthday in September. Several friends and family members took me to dinner. I received cards, flowers, emails, and hugs. I had lunch with a longtime friend, whose birthday is the same week as mine. It was the first time we’ve gotten together since her husband of 44 years died four months earlier. We discus

“If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t f_ _k ‘em.” ...

Nancy Davidoff Kelton is a playwright, essayist and book author.

Dear Readers: I got this letter 8 years ago. The person who wrote it sent it to Penguin Random House, the publisher of my book, Writing...