Eleanor McCallie Cooper Firebird Book Award Winner & Author Interview

When Eleanor was 21, just out of college, and on her way to her first job—teaching English in Japan—she learned that she had an aunt who had married a man from China and lived in China 40 years. At the time China was closed to the West, so no one knew if her aunt was still alive. Eleanor was determined to find out—and, one day, to tell her story. When Nixon and Mao opened the doors, Eleanor’s Aunt Grace returned to the US. Eleanor soon met her and lived with her aunt the last year of her life. Eleanor has just published a novel Dragonfly Dreams, set in China during WWII, based on the true story of how her aunt’s family with three children survived the Japanese occupation and avoided being sent to an internment camp.  Eleanor’s earlier book, Grace in China, tells about her aunt’s 40 years in China and will be republished this August by New South Books. Eleanor has worked in Japan, traveled around the world by herself before she was 25, lived in San Francisco and New York, and currently lives in Chattanooga, TN.VISIT THE WEBSITEYou are listening to a short radio spot. LISTEN TO ELEANOR'S INTERVIEW