Don’t Call It a
Comeback A Former Director of Hollins’ Children’s Literature Program Amanda Cockrell Finds Post-Retirement Success In Writing About the Past B Y
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s a writer, Amanda Cockrell ’69, M.A. ’88 has a good understanding of how the past repeats and variates itself. “The adage holds that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat its mistakes, and I think that’s true,” said Cockrell. “But if history repeats itself, it never does so exactly or we would probably be better prepared for it.” Speaking of that, Cockrell wasn’t prepared for how busy, or productive, her retirement would be. After 26 years working at Hollins as an educator and the first director of the university’s children’s literature program, Cockrell hung up her academic regalia in 2018— but since then she’s felt anything but “retired.” In addition to continuing her work as managing editor of The Hollins Critic, Cockrell has published three new books, nearly one a year, and not slim children’s books (as one might expect from the former director) but rather meaty works of historical fiction. “It feels wonderful—had pretty much decided I was probably not going to publish anything else and that was fine,” said Cockrell about her postretirement inspiration. The Hollins alumna hadn’t published a new book since 2011, and even though she was the founding director of Hollins’ children’s literature program, which under her leadership branched into multiple degrees and certifications, Cockrell’s writing career has been solely focused on fiction. “This whole thing has been a huge and gratifying surprise, especially the success of the new books.” Her newest novel, The Shadow of the Eagle, will be available online and in bookstores on May 26, and it’s the first in a new three-book series of Roman-era historical fiction called The Borderlands. Set nearly 2,000 years ago along the fringes of the Roman Empire in modernday Britain, The Shadow of the Eagle follows Faustus Valerianus, the son of a Roman father and a British mother, as he joins the legendary general Agricola’s campaign to conquer all of the British Isles, pitting Faustus (in a very Faustian pact) against his allegiance to the empire and the bonds of his own Courtesy of Sheree Scarborough
