Introducing Shirley Braverman

Hilma Wolitzer

Dec 2012 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

DIVDIVAs World War II rages, a sixth-grader from Brooklyn battles adolescence/divDIV
Even while the air-raid sirens blare, Shirley Braverman isn’t worried. Her father is the air-raid warden for their apartment house, and she knows he will keep them safe. There is a war on the other side of the ocean, but here in Brooklyn, life goes on. People ride trolleys, they go to double features at the movies, and they cheer on the Dodgers, win or lose. /divDIV /divDIVShirley is also the best speller in her school’s sixth grade, and she has her eyes on an even bigger title: spelling champion of New York City. When she’s not practicing, Shirley takes care of her younger brother, Theodore—a clumsy kid who’s scared of everything that moves, and some things that don’t. But to win the spelling bee, she will have to listen to what she’s always telling Theodore: Believe in yourself, and don’t be afraid./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Hilma Wolitzer, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div/div

About the author

DIVDIVHilma Wolitzer (b. 1930) is a critically hailed author of literary fiction. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, New York University, and Columbia University. Born in Brooklyn, she began writing as a child, and published her first poem at age nine. Her first published short story, “Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket,” appeared in print when she was thirty-six. Eight years later, she published Ending (1974), a novel about a young man succumbing to a terminal illness and his wife’s struggle to go on. Since then, her novels have dealt mostly with domestic themes, and she has drawn praise for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home./divDIV /divAfter publishing her tenth novel, Tunnel of Love (1994), Wolitzer confronted a crippling writer’s block. She worked with a therapist to understand and overcome the block, and completed the first draft of a new novel in just a few months. Upon its release, The Doctor’s Daughter (2006) was touted as a “triumphant comeback” by the New York Times Book Review.Since then, Wolitzer has published two more books—Summer Reading (2007) and An Available Man (2012). She has two daughters—an editor and a novelist—and lives with her husband in New York City, where she continues to write./div