2014 – Billie Travalini

Governor’s Awards Home

Billie Travalini is an internationally-recognized, award-winning writer and educator, and the force behind many educational and literary ventures throughout the state. A concern for the individual voice both literary and literal is at the core of this native Delawarean’s work and life.

As the volunteer coordinator of numerous writing conferences, including co-founder and coordinator of the Lewes Creative Writers’ Conference, now in its seventh year, Travalini has organized numerous inspirational professional development opportunities for her colleagues and the public. She conceived and produced two anthologies of Delaware poetry and prose On the Mason Dixon Line (University of Delaware Press, 2008) and No Place Like Here (Doll’s Eye Press, 2012) â?? volunteering her time to showcase work from dozens of established and emerging Delaware writers. Travalini has spent years teaching students served by Delaware’s Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, where she uses creative writing to inspire critical thinking. Determined to share the students’ work with a wider audience, she gathered the students’ poems, stories, and works of art in Teaching Troubled Youth: a Practical Pedagogical Approach, an award-winning book with an important message on the human condition. The recipient of two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Delaware Division of the Arts, Travalini was recognized in 2005 for poetry and in 2007 for fiction. Photo credit: Roxanne Stanulis