A Country To Call Home

From the editor of A Country of Refuge comes an anthology of writing on one of the defining issues of our time; focusing on the fate of refugee children and young adults, it is aimed at children and adult readers alike. There are tales of home, and missing it; poems about the dangerous journeys undertaken and life in the refugee camps; stories about prejudice, but also stories of children’s fortitude, their dreams and aspirations. A Country to Call Home implores us to build bridges, not walls. It is intended as a reminder of our shared humanity, seeking to challenge the negative narratives that so often cloud our view of these vulnerable young people, and prevent us giving them the empathy they deserve. The book will include stories, flash fiction, poetry and original artwork from some of our finest children’s writers: Michael Morpurgo, David Almond, Chris Riddell, Moniza Alvi, Simon Armitage, Sita Brahmachari, Eoin Colfer, Kit de Waal, Peter Kalu, Judith Kerr, Patrice Lawrence, Anna Perera, the late Christine Pullein-Thompson, Bali Rai and S. F. Said.

A Country of Refuge is a poignant, thought-provoking and timely anthology of writing on asylum seekers from some of Britain and Ireland’s most influential voices. Compiled and edited by human rights activist and writer Lucy Popescu, this powerful collection of short fiction, memoir, poetry and essays explores what it really means to be a refugee: to flee from conflict, poverty and terror; to have to leave your home and family behind; and to undertake a perilous journey, only to arrive on less than welcoming shores. These writings are a testament to the strength of the human spirit. The contributors articulate simple truths about migration that will challenge the way we think about and act towards the dispossessed and those forced to seek a safe place to call home.

A tale of love, loss, identity, and belonging, No Place to Call Home tells the story of a family who fled to the United Kingdom from their native Congo to escape the political violence under the dictator, Le Maréchal. The young son Jean starts at a new school and struggles to fit in. An unlikely friendship gets him into a string of sticky situations, eventually leading to a suspension. At home, his parents pressure him to focus on school and get his act together, to behave more like his star-student little sister. As the family tries to integrate in and navigate modern British society while holding on to their roots and culture, they meet Tonton, a womanizer who loves alcohol and parties. Much to Jean's father's dismay, after losing his job, Tonton moves in with them. He introduces the family—via his church where colorful characters congregate—to a familiar community of fellow country-people, making them feel slightly less alone. The family begins to settle, but their current situation unravels and a threat to their future appears, while the fear of uncertainty remains.

In 1933, what's left of the Turner family--twelve-year-old Hallie and her two brothers--finds itself driving the back roads of rural America. The children have been swept up into a new migratory way of life. America is facing two devastating crises: the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Hundreds of thousands of people in cities across the country have lost jobs. In rural America it isn't any better as crops suffer from the never-ending drought. Driven by severe economic hardship, thousands of people take to the road to seek whatever work they can find, often splintering fragile families in the process. As the Turner children move from town to town, searching for work and trying to cobble together the basic necessities of life, they are met with suspicion and hostility. They are viewed as outsiders in their own country. Will they ever find a place to call home? New York Times-bestselling author Sandra Dallas gives middle-grade readers a timely story of young people searching for a home and a better way of life.

For award-winning architect Gil Schafer, the most successful houses are the ones that celebrate the small moments of life—houses with timeless charm that are imbued with memory and anchored in a distinct sense of place. Essentially, Schafer believes a house is truly successful when the people who live there consider it home. It’s this belief—and Schafer’s rare ability to translate his clients’ deeply personal visions of how they want to live into a physical home that reflects those dreams—that has established him as one of the most sought-after, highly-regarded architects of our time. In his new book, A Place to Call Home Schafer follows up his bestselling The Great American House, by pulling the curtain back on his distinctive approach, sharing his process (complete with unexpected, accessible ideas readers can work into their own projects) and taking readers on a detailed tour of seven beautifully realized houses in a range of styles located around the country—each in a unique place, and each with a character all its own. 250 lush, full color photographs of these seven houses and other never-before-seen projects, including exterior, interior, and landscape details, invite readers into Schafer’s world of comfortable classicism. Opening with memories of the childhood homes and experiences that have shaped Schafer’s own history, A Place to Call Home gives the reader the sense that for Schafer, architecture is not just a career but a way of life, a calling. He describes how the many varied houses of his youth were informed as much by their style as by their sense of place, and how these experiences of home informed his idea of classicism as a set of values that he applies to many different kinds of architecture in places as varied as the ones he grew up in. Because while Schafer is absolutely a classical architect, he is in fact a modern traditionalist, and A Place to Call Home showcases how he effortlessly interprets traditional principles for a multiplicity of architectural styles within contemporary ways of living. Sections in Part I include the delicate balance of modern and traditional aesthetics, the juxtaposition of fancy and simple, and the details that make each project special and livable. Schafer also delves into what he refers to as “the spaces in between,” those often overlooked spaces like closets, mudrooms, and laundry rooms, explaining their underappreciated value in the broader context of a home. Part of Schafer’s skill lies in the way he gives the minutiae of a project as much attention as the grand aesthetic gestures, and ultimately, it’s this combination that brings his homes to life. Part II of the book is the story of seven houses and the places they inhabit—each with a completely different character and soul: a charming cottage completely rebuilt into a casual but gracious house for a young family in bucolic Mill Valley, California; a reconstructed historic 1930s Colonial house and gardens set in lush woodlands in Connecticut; a new, Adirondack camp-inspired house for an active family perched on the edge of Lake Placid with stunning views of nearby Whiteface Mountain; an elegant but family-friendly Fifth Avenue apartment with a panoramic view of Central Park; a new timber frame and stone barn situated to take advantage of the summer sun on a lovely, rambling property in New England; a new residence and outbuildings on a 6,000 acre hunting preserve in Georgia, inspired by the historic 1920s and 1930s hunting plantation houses in the region; and Schafer’s own, deeply personal, newly-renovated and surprisingly modern house located just a few feet from the Atlantic Ocean in coastal Maine. In Schafer’s hands, the stories of these houses are irresistibly readable. He guides the reader through each of the design decisions, sharing anecdotes about the process and fascinating historical background and contextual influences of the settings. Ultimately, the houses featured in A Place to Call Home are more than just beautiful buildings in beautiful places. In each of them, Schafer has created a dialogue between past and present, a personalized world that people can inhabit gracefully, in sync with their own notions of home. Because, as Schafer writes in the book, he designs houses “not for an architect’s ego, but [for] the beauty of life, the joys of family, and, not least, a heartfelt celebration of place.”

Words We Call Home is a commemorative anthology celebrating more than twenty-five years of achievement for the UBC Creative Writing department -- the oldest writing program in Canada. The more than sixty poets, dramatists, and fiction writers included provide just a sample of the energy and vision the department has fostered over the years. From Earle Birney's pioneering efforts in 1946, to the birth of the department in 1965, to the present day, the programme has created a place for aspiring, talented writers.

When Lenore de Quincy's father gives her the key to a bank box containing a fortune in cash and then dies, she realizes she is no longer under constraints to remain unhappily married. She abandons her husband, taking her daughter, Angela, with her from a provincial town in western Pennsylvania to the bright lights of Manhattan. A PLACE TO CALL HOME is a novel inspired by true stories set against the First World War, The Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression. It centers around two well-to-do families joined by an arranged marriage. The action is seen through Angela's eyes as she struggles with the effects on her life of her parents' divorce, a thing viewed in the 1920's as scandalous and tragic. Her travels between New York City and her father's nurturing family in a coal-belt town near Pittsburgh provide humorous and nostalgic anecdotes about growing up in the America of that era. Mary Ellen Stelling was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1915 and lived in New York, Florida, North Carolina and Texas before settling in 1946 in Atlanta. For five years a feature columnist on the Women's Page of the Atlanta CONSTITUTION, she was a member of the Georgia Poetry Society and the Poetry Society of Texas. During the 1950's and 1960's, her work appeared in poetry journals in almost every state of the Union, and most newspapers of the time which featured verse published her poems. She was the wife of a successful retail executive and a dedicated mother who did all the usual time-consuming things to support her son's activities. Behind the scenes she worked as time allowed to create a richly humorous prose document portraying her childhood experiences. Those sketches written in the 1950's totaling about a hundred pages were the seeds which inspired this book. Mrs. Stelling passed away at the age of 82 in 1998. Peter James Stelling was born in Charlotte, NC, in 1943 and has spent most of his life in Atlanta. A graduate of Washington and Lee University and Grady College of the University of Georgia, he spent four years in advertising in New York before returning home to work for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and for two different firms specializing in Group Incentive Sales Travel and Meeting Planning. One of his most memorable work experiences was serving as road manager for a traveling symphony orchestra during the early years of Robert Shaw's tenure as their Music Director. Now a contentedly retired father of two and grandfather of four, he is grateful for having had the luxury of time to complete this unique family document. He remains an active supporter of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Opera, Trinity Presbyterian Church, and serves on the Board of Governors of the Vinings Club in suburban Atlanta.

Ellen thought she’d always live in the remote, pretty coastal village where she grew up. After all, her husband, Harry, works on a farm where he’s guaranteed a job and home for life. But when the old landowner dies and the couple and their young children are forced from their cottage, the future is suddenly bleak. Rather than stay – and starve – in the countryside they love, Harry sets out to find a job in the factories and mills of nearby Hull, and Ellen must leave behind everything she’s ever known to follow her husband and build a new life for her family on the unfamiliar city streets. The road ahead is full of hardships and challenges. But with love and determination, they make the best of things, forging friendships with other newcomers and refugees; even helping them to succeed in their new surroundings. Then tragedy threatens Ellen’s fragile happiness. How much more can she sacrifice before they find a place to call home? Val Wood's wonderful historical sagas are perfect for readers of Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Rosie Goodwin.

I am a retired professional engineer. I am seventy-seven years old. My first attempt at literary work was translating a Hungarian novel by Wass Albert to English three years ago. It gave me a helpful literary structure and encouraged me to write my own novel, Find a Place to Call Home.