{{short description|American novelist}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP sources|date=May 2025}} {{Unreliable sources|date=May 2025}} }} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2024}} '''Amanda Cockrell''' is an American author and academic at Hollins University, a private women's university in Virginia, United States. She has written historical novels under the pseudonym '''Damion Hunter'''.
==Academic career== Amanda Cockrell co-founded the children's literature graduate program at Hollins University in 1992, along with R.H.W. Dillard, and was director of the program until she retired from it. Since then, she has been managing editor of ''The Hollins Critic'', a position she holds {{as of|lc=yes|2024}}.<ref>{{cite web | title=Amanda Cockrell | website=Hollins University | date=31 July 2023 | url=https://www.hollins.edu/directory/amanda-cockrell/ | access-date=5 September 2024}}</ref>
==Writing career== Cockrell is the author of a number of historical novels for adults, some written under her own name and some under the pseudonym Damion Hunter. She has written novels about the Romans and about the indigenous peoples of the Americas.<ref>[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/amanda-cockrell/ Amanda Cockrell at Fantastic Fiction]</ref> In 1981, she published ''The Centurions'', the first book in a historical fiction series about the 1st-century Roman Empire. Set primarily in Roman Britain circa AD 72–75, it follows the adventures of a pair of Roman brothers – one free-born and one slave-born – as they serve in the Roman legions.<ref>[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/amanda-cockrell/centurions.htm ''The Centurions'' at Fantastic Fiction]</ref> The other three books in the series are ''Barbarian Princess'', ''The Emperor's Games'', and ''The Border Wolves''. The three first books were written back in the 1980s, while the last novel in the series was published in 2021 finally wrapping up the story.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56807421-the-border-wolves | title=The Border Wolves (The Centurions #4) }}</ref>
Her first young adult novel, ''What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay'', was published in 2011 and was named one of the best children's books of the year by ''The Boston Globe''.<ref>[https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2011/12/18/best-year-for-children/aJV5t3cLrIdP7lZ6N5PDzJ/story.html "For children: Best books of the year" by Liz Rosenberg], ''The Boston Globe'', December 18, 2011</ref>
==Selected bibliography== {{BLP unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}
===As Amanda Cockrell=== *''Legions of the Mist'', 1979 *''Pomegranate Seed'', 2002 *''What We Keep Is Not Always What Will Stay'', 2011 '''The Deer Dancers''' *''Daughter of the Sky'', 1995 *''Wind Caller's Children'', 1996 *''The Long Walk'', 1996 '''The Horse Catchers''' *''When the Horses Came'', 1999 *''Children of the Horse'', 2000 *''The Rain Child'', 2001
===As Amanda Cockrell "writing as Damion Hunter"=== *''The Wall at the Edge of the World'', 2020 ::(sequel to ''Legions of the Mist'') *''The Border Wolves'', 2021 ::(fourth book in ''The Centurions'' series)
===As Damion Hunter=== '''The Centurions Trilogy''' *''The Centurions'', 1981 *''Barbarian Princess'', 1982 *''The Emperor's Games'', 1984
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{official website|https://www.amandacockrell.com/}} *{{ISFDB name|id=Amanda_Cockrell|name=Amanda Cockrell}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockrell, Amanda}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American historical novelists Category:American writers of young adult literature Category:Hollins University faculty Category:Novelists from Virginia Category:American women historical novelists Category:American women writers of young adult literature Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:American women academics Category:21st-century American women novelists