• Tiger Lily from the ESL Institute, UNH

    IMG_1474Students at the ESL Institute at the University of New Hampshire presented a conference on June 19 to recognize World Refugee Day.   ESL Lecturer Meaghan Dunn and her students had read The Good Braider and invited me to come and speak.  I did, and went early to see the students’ poster presentations. They each focused on a refugee group and told the story in images and words.  Some told of refugees coming to their home country. Students from Indonesia reported  the news-breaking story of Rohingya READ MORE

  • Braids and Belonging, On Writing a Story of a Girl from South Sudan

    IBBY UKExcerpt from “Braids and Belonging”  my article  in IBBY LINK, Spring-Summer, 2015 the journal of  IBBY UK, International Board of Books for Young People in the United Kingdom.

    “From the beginning of my years with the girls of Sudan, it was so much about hair. I saw how the styles were a vital part of their identity and a part of their sense of belonging within their community.   A young Sudanese man told me, “Only if a girl grows up in Africa does she know how to do the braids.” It was art to me as I watched the braiders’ fingers fly on the tiny strands of hair…. continue reading

    https://www.ibby.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ibbylink42-spring2015.pdf

  • A Student Speaks for “all the Violas of the world”

    Cathy Eaton's students

    Prof. Cathy Eaton, me, and a few of her former Intro to Literature students. They’re also writers themselves.

    Students and teachers have shared with me some of the essays written in response to reading The Good Braider. One student, Steven Kidder, wrote an essay about PTSD. It was both well researched and also deeply personal, and his personal response added power to the facts about PTSD. In Viola he saw a person experiencing flashbacks to terror during the war in Juba in the same way his brother-in-law experienced flashbacks. His brother-in-law had returned home from two tours in Afghanistan. Steven writes that his brother-in-law “avoids large crowds of people, because it causes him to feel anxious and uncomfortable. He immediately feels he is at risk in those situations, so he avoids them at all costs. This occurs for Viola when Jamal READ MORE

  • Journey to Kathmandu, Nepal

    Many have asked about a best way to help the people of Nepal. I met teachers with World Education Nepal during my visit there in early April. They are setting up “child friendly places” for earthquake survivors. These are places for “children to continue learning while they wait for schools to reopen.” They welcome donations and have a link on their page. https://www.facebook.com/worlded

    READ MORE

  • Days at Sea

    The backdrop of Either the Beginning or the End of the World is the life of a commercial fisherman’s family. I’ve followed the stories of New Hampshire fishermen since I moved to the the Seacoast.  My father is an island boy from what was a fishing and farming town, Shelter Island, NY, and I’ve always felt connected to the sea. Here are some of my pictures of the Portsmouth Fishermen’s Co-op where  Sofie and Johnny’s boat, the Karma is berthed. Here are also fishermen and the Piscataqua River. Michael Pawluk is in the first photo, taken by the boat’s captain, Steve Lee on the Kirsten Lee, shrimping in January. READ MORE