these things, this week

Thanks to the 2015 Beltran Family Teaching Award for Innovative Teaching & Mentoring at the Kelly Writers House (University of Pennsylvania), I'll be given an opportunity to create an event for faculty and students in the 2015/2016 academic year. I'm so grateful to my university, the KWH, and my dear students, who nominated me for the award.

Whatever Doesn't Kill You, the Shebooks anthology featuring Nest. Flight. Sky. along with five additional pieces by exquisite writers (and edited by Laura Fraser), won a Silver IPPY Award. We're so happy for Laura, especially, who has put so much of her soul into Shebooks.

The 2015 Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English accepted a proposal on teaching creativity and responsibility through the arts that will bring together the amazing illustrator Melissa Sweet, two fantastic teachers (Glenda Cowen-Funk and Paul Hankins), and me. I can't wait for this. And: it will be my first time ever to Minneapolis.

I found One Thing Stolen in bookstores, when I wasn't even looking for it. Huge thanks to Forever Young Adult, for this generous review of the book.

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Honored to be included in Whatever Doesn't Kill You: The Shebooks Print Anthology

I am deeply honored to have my memoir, Nest. Flight. Sky., selected as one of six memoirs for the first Shebooks print anthology. I stand in glorious good company. I am grateful to Laura Fraser, Peggy Northrop, and the entire Shebooks family, and I cannot wait to hold this book in my hands.

COMING SOON | AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

Shebooks, a new media company devoted to women’s storytelling, presents its best short memoirs in this print anthology, Whatever Doesn’t Kill You: Six Memoirs of Resilience, Strength, and Forgiveness.

In “Ricochet: Two women war reporters and a friendship under fire,” award-winning journalist Mary Jo McConahay explores the personal toll of war reporting in Central America.

Playwright and author Barbara Graham’s delicate “Camp Paradox: A memoir of stolen innocence” takes on the taboo topic of women abusing younger girls.

Susan Ito’s “The Mouse Room” is the quirky tale of a young woman working in a genetics lab while trying to find her own birth mother.

Faith Adiele’s “ The Nordic-Nigerian Girls’ Guide to Lady Problems” makes a trip to the gynecologist’s office funny, while exposing racial disparities in women’s health care.

Award-winning short story writer Ethel Rohan’s “Out of Dublin” is an exquisite tale of emotional survival.

In the gorgeous “Nest. Flight. Sky.” memoirist Beth Kephart muses on her mother’s death and her new-found obsession with birds.

All these true life stories are brave and beautifully written. The authors use the power of writing to understand and transcend challenges– their memoirs  are an inspiration for all of us.

Edited by Laura Fraser. 

“Shebooks are essential for a well-read life”-- Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You

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