![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/cockrell.jpg\")
This is possibly the most frequently repeated advice given in creative writing classrooms. Telling readers what is happening in a story is useful, perhaps, but it is boring. Static. Flat. Showing, on the other hand, gives your characters and setting dimension. It brings your story to life.<\/p>\n
In her position as the director of the graduate programs in children’s literature, Amanda Cockrell has had to do a lot of telling. There were all the orientations as we gathered excitedly in the Green Drawing Room at the beginning of the summer. There were the countless advising meetings as we stressed about everything from schedules to vocations. And, of course, there were so,\u00a0so<\/em>\u00a0many emails.<\/p>\n As her graduate assistant for two summers, I got a taste of how much behind-the-scenes administrative work she did to keep the program not just running, but thriving. I asked her questions on a daily basis, and she responded to me as she does in all her telling: with characteristic patience, promptness, clarity, and charm.<\/p>\n But Amanda is a writer as well as an administrator, which is to say that she is first and foremost a show-er. So what has she been showing us all these years at Hollins?<\/p>\n She showed us her openhearted hospitality. Each year, she welcomed us not only to campus, but also to her beautiful home for the end-of-summer potlucks. As our advisor, she was always available to discuss whatever was on our minds, responding to our concerns and requests with equal grace and generosity.<\/p>\n She showed us her fierce loyalty. On one occasion, the other graduate assistants and I were explaining a misunderstanding we\u2019d had with another office on campus. Amanda listened, stood up, and strode determinedly out of the building. As I watched her go, I thought to myself, \u201cIt\u2019ll be fine. Amanda\u2019s got us.\u201d It was, and she did. She always has.<\/p>\n She also showed us her profound belief in us as creators and scholars. Once, after I presented at a conference, Amanda handed me her business card displaying her home, office, cell, and email contact information. \u201cI\u2019d love to have your paper for the [Children\u2019s Literature<\/em>]\u00a0journal,\u201d she said. Initially, I found the business card handover amusing. Didn\u2019t she remember that, as her assistant, I had access to these various contact options? Later, though, I realized what she had done for me. Of course she was aware that I knew how to reach her. But she wanted to treat me the way she would anyone else at a conference. In speaking to me like a scholar, she helped me become one. I learned from other Hollins friends that this is a normal practice for her; Amanda consistently treats us as though we are who we want someday to be.<\/p>\n Having been away from Hollins for a few years now, I interact with Amanda mainly through Facebook, and I continue to marvel at the pride she has in us. She celebrates our publications and other joys whenever possible, and she mourns with us when we need to grieve. She encourages our ideas, like the development of the alumni reunion.<\/p>\n Occasionally, I\u2019ll bump into Amanda at a conference and, after a hug and a chat, I\u2019ll ask where she\u2019s headed next. Her answer is always the same: \u201cTo the next session with a Hollins student!\u201d Many conference-goers feel the tension between supporting colleagues and attending other sessions of interest. For Amanda, it isn\u2019t that she is prioritizing us\u00a0over<\/em>\u00a0her interests. Her interests\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0us.<\/p>\n Amanda has been foundational in writing the ever-developing story of the children\u2019s literature programs at Hollins, and her contributions\u2014as director, teacher, editor, advisor, mentor, writer\u2014are immeasurable.<\/p>\n Despite all of the telling she has had to do in one form or another over the years, her primary work has always been showing us she loves us by providing opportunities to bring our stories\u2014and ourselves\u2014to life.<\/p>\n Sarah Jackson is pursuing her doctorate in literature for children and young adults at The Ohio State University, where she is researching preschoolers’ engagement with multicultural and diverse literature.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Thousand Crossings<\/em>\u00a0is a five-part exhibition.\u00a0Family<\/em>\u00a0features photographs that Mann took of her three children during the 1980s at their summer cabin on Virginia\u2019s Maury River. Swamplands, fields, and decaying estates that Mann discovered during her travels across Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi in the 1990s highlight\u00a0The Land<\/em>.\u00a0Civil War battlefields are the focus of\u00a0Last<\/em>\u00a0Measure<\/em>, and\u00a0Abide with Me <\/em>investigates the role of race and history in shaping Virginia\u2019s landscape and Mann\u2019s own childhood and adolescence. The exhibition\u2019s final section,\u00a0What Remains<\/em>, touches on themes of time, transformation, and death through photographs of Mann and her family.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Gallery is now one of the largest repositories of Mann\u2019s photographs,\u201d said director Earl A. Powell III. \u201cWe are grateful for the opportunity to work closely with the artist in presenting a wide selection of the work she has created over four decades.\u201d Private lectures with curators are being planned as the exhibition travels throughout the United States and to Paris.<\/p>\nNational Gallery showcases work of Sally Mann<\/h2>\n
A Thousand Crossings<\/em> on view this spring<\/h3>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/mann.jpg\")
The\u00a0National Gallery of Art\u00a0in Washington, D.C., presented Sally Mann\u2019s (\u201974, M.A. \u201975) first major international exhibition of her photographs of the South. Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings<\/em>\u00a0brought together 115 photographs that offered insight into Mann\u2019s connection with the literature, art, and history of her native region. Many of the photographs in the exhibition, on view in the gallery\u2019s West Building from March 4 through May 28, were shown for the first time.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/tabor-smith.jpg\")
Dancer and choreographer Amara Tabor-Smith M.F.A. \u201916 is one of 45 artists and collectives across nine creative disciplines announced as 2018 USA Fellows by\u00a0![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/ristau.jpg\")
The\u00a0Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival\u00a0(KCACTF) presented its highest award to the director of the\u00a0Playwright\u2019s Lab at Hollins University. Todd Ristau, who has guided the M.F.A. program in playwriting since its inception in 2007, received the KCACTF Gold Medallion, one of the most prestigious honors in theatre education.<\/p>\n![\"divider\"](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/wave.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/sims.jpg\")
Myra Sims has been appointed director of athletics. She assumed full-time oversight of the athletic department\u2019s day-to-day operations in late spring. Sims comes to Hollins from Emory & Henry College, where she has been director of athletics since 2010.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fraustino.jpg\")
Lisa Rowe Fraustino, a critically acclaimed and award-winning author of young adult and children’s books, has been appointed director of the graduate programs in children’s literature. She succeeds Amanda Cockrell \u201969, MA. \u201988, who has led the program since 1992 and is retiring from the position this August.<\/p>\n