Nancy Joaquim is a native of Boston, Massachusetts and a graduate of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. She is recipient of Boston University’s Distinguished Alumni Award, as well as Northwood University’s Distinguished Women’s Award. Author, concert singer, and arts educator, the diversity of her professional and public life is distinguished by its devotion to the arts and letters. She is the author of SOPHIA SCHLIEMANN, A Woman Discovers Mycenae, published in Munich in 1994 and introduced at the Frankfurt Bookfair. Most recently, she has published SOPHIA, A Woman’s Search for Troy, an historical novel based on the true life experiences of Sophia Schliemann, wife and collaborator of the father of modern-day archaeology, Heinrich Schliemann.
Ms. Joaquim has served on grant review panels at the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., and in 1984, President Ronald Reagan appointed her to serve on the National Advisory Council on Adult Education whose charge was National Adult Literacy.
She has pursued successful careers as a concert singer and music educator and has made numerous concert and television appearances in both areas. She created and authored the Listen and Learn Curriculum Plans which were designed as community enrichment programs in music and the comparative arts for all age groups. A number of these programs were implemented in public and private schools across America. She has also written columns on the arts for community newspapers. Book signings and talks on Sophia and Heinrich Schliemann have recently taken place at The Harvard Coop, Harvard University; Barnes and Noble at Boston University; The Poisoned Pen, Scottsdale, Arizona; and Changing Hands, Tempe, Arizona. Locally, Ms. Joaquim has also appeared as featured speaker for The English Speaking Union and later in April will speak to The French Heritage Society and Spirit of the Senses Salon.
In March, 2008, Nancy and Richard Joaquim will be awarded the Medallion of Merit in recognition of their lifetime achievement in the arts by the National Society of Arts and Letters. The ceremony will take place at the Tempe Center for the Arts. There has only been one other time the NSAL has awarded the Medallion to a couple and that was to Will and Ariel Durant.
Current and former affiliations include:
• Board of Trustees: Phoenix Art Museum
• The Library Council, Museum of Modern Art, New York;
• The Senator Margaret Chase Smith Panel for Current Studies, Northwood University;
• Board of Trustees: Arizona Opera Company;
• Board of Trustees: The Scottsdale Artists School;
• Advisory Board: Boston University College of Fine Arts;
• Emmanuel College, Boston, Massachusetts;
• Newton, Massachusetts Public Schools: Music Consultant;
• Docent Coordinator: Young Peoples Concerts: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.;
• The American Society of the Order of Saint John.
Since 1976, Ms. Joaquim has made her home in Arizona with her husband, Richard R. Joaquim, President and Founder of International Conference Resorts and Monarch International Conference Resort Development.
“An intricately plotted tale that draws readers in and makes French history come alive.”
– Kirkus Reviews
HISTORICAL FICTION
BUILD ME A CITY
BY • POSTED ON Jan. 22, 2022
A novel chronicles one man’s fictional journey through the tumultuous second half of the 19th century in Paris.
Charles Fabron of Rouen has a thriving architectural practice and a beautiful young wife, Louisa, pregnant with twins. But it all comes crashing down when Louisa dies in childbirth along with the twin boys. Devastated, Charles reluctantly accepts a position in Paris with the dynamic Baron Haussmann, the emperor’s right-hand man overseeing a complete tearing down and rebuilding of the City of Light. Charles is angry to be named supervisor of demolition, but Haussmann’s legendary charm wins him over, and he throws himself into the work, which he finds that he enjoys and which helps him heal. One day, Daniel Lazare, a young boy, shows up, recommended as a runner, a messenger among all the projects. He proves himself almost indispensable and well liked. But suddenly, he is accused, falsely, of theft, and no matter how personable he is, it is well known in Paris that orphans and runaways like Daniel are robbers and liars. He takes off. The rest of the book is a hunt for him on Charles’ part and also the revelation that the architect has really been a puppet in his own life. Joaquim, a graceful writer, makes the most of an exciting period in French history—first the Second Empire, then the Prussian siege of Paris, and finally the Commune. Haussmann is toppled, becomes hated, and the Communards try to destroy his magnificent work. But the real story is the relationship between Charles and this mysterious boy who has disappeared. Readers follow Charles into old age, into what Milton called “calm of mind, all passion spent.” As Charles reflects, “A garden is like life. It never turns out quite the way you want it to.” But in the author’s poetic treatment, readers get a wonderful Dickensian denouement that glosses over some of the dicey coincidences. Readers will forgive Joaquim those improbable twists because they will want to believe in the characters and have love reaffirmed.
An intricately plotted tale that draws readers in and makes French history come alive.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
ADDITIONAL WORKS AVAILABLE
Sophia: A Woman's Search for Troy
SOPHIA is an historical novel inspired by the true life experiences of Sophia Schliemann, the world's first female archaeologist and the woman who, with her famous husband, Heinrich Schliemann, the father of modern-day archaeology, discovered and excavated the citadels of ancient Troy and Mycenae, breathing life into the golden age of Homer's ILIAD and the greater legend of the Trojan War.
Published: April 13, 2013
ISBN: 1-59926-745-4
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