A retired Hill staffer, wine enthusiast, animal lover and
junkie for South Africa, Nancy Lifset penned Back to the Wild Life, a humorous memoir of her adventures in
southern Africa that helped resuscitate her passion for life after a game-changing detour in her career. With
dry wit and wine uncorked, Nancy showcases an acerbic style and an uncanny
ability to find inspiration in the random one-off’s that make life a mosaic of coincidences.
Nancy earned her B.A. in journalism at the University of
Maryland (1980), and began her 26-year career on Capitol Hill during her senior
year of college, cutting her teeth “digging dirt” and doing opposition research
for several U.S. Senate campaigns. Later
as a staffer in the House and Senate, she handled everything from “guns” to
“butter” issues, and got her first taste for the “wild life” in the work hard,
play hard world of Washington, D.C.
She retired from Capitol Hill in 2006, mentally battered
after the dust settled from her former boss’s fall from DC grace, and returned
to work as a lobbyist in the private sector. In 2009 she charted a new course and left behind the workday world and years
of professional drama, for the wildlife sanctuaries and wineries of Southern
Africa in the summer of 2009, where she began living and writing Back to the Wild Life.
Passionate about wine, Nancy’s “no connoisseur – just the
ultimate consumer.” Her guiding
principle has always been “keep it simple and straight up” – all except for the
glass. A lifelong dog lover, she’s been
actively involved with Rhodesian Ridgeback rescue. No less a cause for Nancy is that of wildlife
conservation. All of these passions converged in her trip to Africa, and
ultimately, were part of her journey back to the wild life.
Raised in Springfield, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, Nancy
is a long-time resident of Capitol Hill
where she still lives with her husband Kevin and their dog, Margo.
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