Tag: stories
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November 18, 2020
This morning I woke up thinking about a fifth-grade boy who came through a signing line at a bookstore in North Carolina. I signed his copy of Despereaux and he said, “My teacher said fifth grade is the year of asking questions.” “Really?” I said. “Yeah,” he said. He took out a notebook. “Every day…
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March 19, 2020
“It is a good and healing thing to tell your story.” Those words are spoken to Louisiana Elefante by Reverend Obertask in Louisiana’s Way Home. Louisiana’s story, I’m happy to say, will be available in paperback on March 24th. Over the next few days, I’m going to put copies of Louisiana’s stories into Little Free…
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January 23, 2020
I just finished reading The Best American Short Stories 2019, and then I flipped back to the beginning of the book and read guest editor Anthony Doerr’s introduction. Doerr’s description of story is so beautiful that I wanted to share it here: “Storytelling is the first and oldest spell, cast around lamps and fires before…
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January 14, 2020
Last Friday night, I did an event with The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina and on Saturday afternoon, I was with Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina. I heard so many stories this trip—stories that made me cry, stories that gave me hope, stories that made me put down my pen and…
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December 12, 2019
I’ve traveled a lot this year (several countries and many, many states), and everywhere I’ve gone I’ve met people, young and old, who are passionate about books and stories–people who have hugged me, taken hold of my hand, cried with me and laughed with me—all because of stories. I’m tired and amazed and grateful. I’m…
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November 5, 2019
On Friday night in Saratoga Springs, New York at an event with Northshire Books, the last person in the line was a young woman who became a reader because a substitute teacher read aloud to her class from The Tale of Despereaux. This woman came all the way from Arizona for the signing that night.…