Francine Walls
NOVELIST & POET
CRADLE OF LIGHTNING
A STORY OF BOTSWANA
"An uplifting and rollicking story of love and adventure, Cradle of Lightning takes us on the journey of a young American widow transplanted along with her young son to a Botswana school. If lessons ensue, the largest and best is saved for the reader: we are not puppets driven by fate, but agents of our own destiny."
— Bethany Reid, author of
Sparrow, and The Pear Tree: Elegy for a Farm
Meet Francine
Francine Walls hails from the Pacific Northwest. She has earned her living over time as a waitress, motel maid, pineapple factory worker, laundry worker, secretary, portrait photographer, teacher, academic librarian, and library director. She holds master’s degrees in English and librarianship from the University of Washington and a doctorate in education from Seattle University. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems appear in the writing handbook, Writing Across Cultures, the anthology, Peace Poems v. 2, and numerous journals. She authored two books related to librarianship as well as a poetry chapbook, Waiting for Someone to Find Me. She is a certified InterPlay leader, involved with
InterPlay for over twenty years. InterPlay activitiesare composed of storytelling, movement, vocalization, improv, and just plain fun.