The director of Hollins University鈥檚 graduate program in children鈥檚 literature has received some impressive year-end recognition for her latest book.
Amanda Cockrell鈥檚 debut young-adult novel, What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay, has been acclaimed as one of the best books of the year for children by The Boston Globe, and has also been named to the Bulletin Blue Ribbons 2011 list from The Bulletin of the Center for Children鈥檚 Books.
In selecting What We Keep for the Globe鈥檚 review of the year鈥檚 most notable writing for young people, author Liz Rosenberg writes, 鈥淐ockrell balances on the knife鈥檚 edge between comedy and tragedy. The depth and darkness of her themes makes an absorbing read for older young adults.鈥
Geared toward readers ages 12 and up, What We Keep is the story of 15-year-old Angie, who falls for a 19-year-old Afghanistan veteran suffering from both physical and emotional trauma. The novel was published by Flux in July 2011.
Along with directing the graduate program in children鈥檚 literature at Hollins, Cockrell is managing editor of The Hollins Critic, the university鈥檚 literary journal. A native of Ojai, California, she also earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Hollins. Cockrell has published numerous essays, poems, and articles in addition to her novels The Legions of the Mist, The Moonshine Blade, The Deer Dancers trilogy, The Horse Catchers trilogy, and Pomegranate Seed. She has received fiction fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
