As a historical novelist, 阿曼达·科克雷尔，69届，88届文学硕士 has employed backdrops ranging from the Hollywood blacklist to Roman myth and history. This spring, Cockrell, who retired in 2018 as director of Hollins’ graduate programs in children’s literature and currently is managing editor of Hollins University’s literary journal, 霍林斯评论家, is immersing readers in the Vietnam War era with 狼的天气, 由北安普顿出版社出版.

Covering the years 1967 to 1972, 狼的天气 “is set partly in Virginia and partly in California in the town where I grew up,” Cockrell explains in 对作家布鲁克·艾伦的采访. “从前哥伦布时代到维多利亚时代和爱德华时代，我写过很多其他的历史小说，但这本是最难的，主要是因为对我来说，它根本不是历史小说，而是以我20岁出头的岁月为背景的小说。” 她补充说：“这不是自传，尽管其中一些经历是我的，就像那个时代一样。”

在小说简介中，北安普顿出版社将“土狼天气”描述为“加州野蛮、饥饿的季节，一切都受到干旱的影响，随时可能着火。” 这是1967年，美国文化正在激烈地重塑自己，而这个国家正在强迫年轻人参加一场非常不受欢迎的战争。”

在书中的主要人物中，“杰瑞固执地没有为未来做任何计划，因为他认为，在越南战争、冷战和原子弹演习的阴影下，不会有未来。” 艾伦决心要有个计划，因为没有什么能阻止地球倾斜。 而幽灵只想回家，回到一个不让他进去的地方：他们都长大的加州小镇。”

Bestselling author and Hollins alumna Lee Smith ’67 praises 狼的天气 as “a spectacular re-creation of a lost but essential time in our history—California, the ’60s, Vietnam—nobody has ever captured it more accurately or written it with more understanding—from several different perspectives. 必读之作。 万岁!” John Ketwig, author of …and a hard rain fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the War in Vietnam, says, “This splendid novel describes the Vietnam generation’s feelings about the war in Southeast Asia, the draft, relationships, the counterculture, psychedelia, women’s issues, commitments, sexual tensions, and the looming uncertainty of where we were headed as individuals and a country. It’s a trip, with all that and more combined in an artful, beautifully written journey.” 史学家, the magazine of the Historical Writers’ Association, cites 狼的天气 as one of the “2023年值得期待的历史书籍。”

科克雷尔的父母分别是编剧和小说家，她拥有霍林斯大学英语和创意写作硕士学位。 她曾获得美国国家艺术基金会和弗吉尼亚艺术委员会颁发的小说奖学金。 Under the pseudonym Damion Hunter, she wrote 鹰的影子， a novel of Roman Britain and the first in 的边界 series; 迷雾军团； 世界边缘之墙； and the 百夫长 series. The young adult novel 我们保留的并不总是会留下; 石榴种子这部电影跨越了默片和约瑟夫·麦卡锡的时代； the trilogies 鹿舞者 and 捕马人; 美国西南部的神话小说； and 月光之刃, a comic thriller set in her current home of Southwest Virginia, are her books writing as Amanda Cockrell.