Sharon Darrow

ISBN 9780998687803 / In Worlds within Words: Writing and The Writing Life, Sharon Darrow shows that a writer, through the process of discovery and revision, not only revises the work, but the self as well, and that through this creative process grows as a human being and becomes more capable of writing what must be written. She brings the knowledge and wisdom her years of experience writing for children, teenagers, and adults has given her to this compilation of essays taken from a selection of her lectures presented during her twenty-year teaching career in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

ISBN 9780998687834 / Vermont author Sharon Darrow has taught in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program of Vermont College of Fine Arts for over 20 years and has lived in Vermont for many of those years. Now residing in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, she is constantly inspired by the richness of the surrounding forests, brooks, lakes, and mountains. Her poems in this volume reflect the vision and solitary spirit of the land and seasons of Vermont. From early spring's mud season and the awakening of life after a long winter, through the heat of summer harvest, to autumn's turning into the chill of winter, these poems reflect the uniqueness of this beautiful, welcoming, and yet sometimes harsh and lonely place. These poems explore the emotional intersection between inner and outer worlds and the breakthrough of voice into the silence.

ISBN 9780998687810 / Lexieville, Arkansas, can hardly be called a town - it’s just a handful of shotgun houses squatting at the end of a gravel road off the two-lane highway out of Sardis. For many in the Lexie clan, this is the only place they’ve ever been, the only home they’ll ever know. Truly Lexie’s dreams of a better life, if she had them once upon a time, have worn threadbare and frail as an ancient quilt. Her devoted but hapless husband, John, long ago accepted his lot in life but hasn’t given up hope that their two children, Jobe and Pert, might lead the lives they’ve only imagined. But Jobe has already dropped out of high school and looks to be marrying young. Only Pert still harbors a youthful and fierce determination to get out, and get out as fast as she can. She aims to wipe the detested red dust of Lexieville off her feet and put on a new life like a bright, clean, fresh coat of paint. The weight of history is hard to shrug off, however, and seems to grow heavier as Pert moves closer to independence. With little support and no role models to follow, will she have the strength to fend off generations’ worth of fatalism, and the confidence to defend her dreams? Sharon Darrow’s harrowing coming-of-age tale, told from the points of view of mother, son, and daughter, is rich with metaphorical significance and - like its small-town heroine - is obstinately, everlastingly hopeful.

ISBN 0763626244 / For sixteen-year-old Sissy and her brother Boy, trash is a reminder of one too many sorry foster placements they've endured, a way of life they can't wait to escape. Now on the run in search of their big sister Raynell, ironically they are forced to rely on their trash-picking skills for sustenance and shelter. Reunited at last with Raynell in St. Louis, Boy and Sissy shed their old identities, reinvent themselves as graffiti artists, and splash their new names on city bridges and walls. But one night's expedition goes horribly wrong, and Sissy looks again to trash, this time as the beginning of something artful and beautiful. Two teen siblings run from foster life -- and find new expression as graffiti artists -- in a stark but hopeful poetic novel.