- AUTHOR-
BILLIE TRAVALINI
THE BOOKS
Blood Sisters
ISBN - 978-0984485031
A finalist for the Bakeless Publication Prize and the James Jones Award and winner of the Lewes Clark Discovery Prize.
At 10, Betsy Toppin's life was going fine until the day a Family Court judge ordered her to leave Mama Cope, her foster mother—the only parent she had known—and live with strangers: her biological parents. Before she was able to understand what it all meant she had gone from being safe and loved to unsafe and unloved, and middle class Catholic to lower class Protestant: none of which pleased her. But the heart of Blood Sisters is not the abuse she endured as the result of one bad decision made by one rushed judge. It is the power of sisterhood. It is the story of how Bootsie, a tomboy and their father’s favorite, willingly gave up her favored place in the family to protect Betsy—the sister she never knew she had—from their father’s demons. And how, together, they learned to never give up hope, no matter what.
Alice Munro Plenary: Life, History, Boundaries, Legacy: 17th International Conference on the Short Story in English
ISBN - 979-8276536927
This plenary from the conference has been one of the most difficult pieces of literature to put together for publication. All of the participants are writers and scholars, many with other occupations as well. It is clear that we needed all of our skills in presenting this material to the conference audience. I can say without hesitation that we feel as though we presented enough for the moment, as well as acknowledging that we will be rewriting much of this for many years moving forward. This is not fiction; this is life and none of us felt adequate to address that for others as well as for ourselves. What we all felt comfortable with, however, was to ensure that “truth” was outed and thus with that incredible reality, writers, critics, scholars, readers, students, editors, publishers, bookstore owners and the general public could make their own decisions about Alice Munro and her legacy.
I want to thank the panelists again for their participation, the audience for its input, questions, comments, and support, and to those of you who will get copies of this plenary. It is because of the response to and requests of those who did not attend the conference that we have put this material together, something never done before at our conference. Be well and safe.
This is it what it feels like
ISBN - 978-1764106832
A woman recedes in her kitchen when her adult adopted son shows up on the street. A daughter furtively watches as her mother finds bliss. Memories assemble, then unravel. Women love and are loved, are betrayed and betray, choose to stay, sometimes riddled with indecision, and leave-wondering if they should they cut the ivy before they go.
The fox traces a spectral presence-vanishing, returning, delivering messages, wreaking carnage, inspiring love and heralding transformation. Recurring images converge and diverge, disappear and re-emerge in slant.
This is What it Feels Like is a collection of interweaving stories by five diverse voices, exploring identity in all its multiplicity. Together, these individual stories speak to our innate interdependence as humans.
On the Mason-Dixon Line
ISBN - 978-1611490954
In the first collection of its kind, the editors have gathered together fifty-two of the best poems, stories, memoirs, novel excerpts, and creative nonfiction by writers who have called the tiny state of Delaware their home. The volume offers meticulously selected work, alphabetized by author, much of it inspired by or set in the state, and all in a wide range of styles. The anthology is not limited to writers currently living in Delaware; rather, it ranges far beyond, including major writers such as Gibbons Ruark, McKay Jenkins, Julianna Baggott, Fleda Brown, Allison Funk, and Pulitzer Prize winner W. D. Snodgrass_writers who were originally from Delaware, or who lived in the state long enough for their work to have been influenced by its streets, its beaches, and its winding marshland waterways. The anthology includes substantial biographies of each author.
No Place Like Here
Edited by Billie Travalini
ISBN - 978-0984485017
Southern Delawareans resist forced sameness no matter how fancy it is panted to be. They get that having an oceanfront house in Rehoboth or a gingerbread house in historic Georgetown or a trailer plunked down in farmland somewhere between Clarksville and Dagsboro is all good. The largest of the three counties, Sussex County, abounds in individual choice. The seventy-three poems, stories, and essays in this anthology offer a diverse range of topics and writing styles, and a new clarity of vision about the people and places that make Southern Delaware extraordinarily unique.
Teaching Troubled Youth: A Practical Pedagogical Approach
With remarkable grace, male and female adjudicated youth 12 to 18 offer the best possible window into their very own private world. Some selections are technically outstanding. Others shine because of the sheer strength of the message or the creative effort. One theme is universal throughout: the need to be heard: to matter.