Lori Ann Stephens, a nearly-native Texan, grew up in the Dallas suburbs, storing little memories and placing them like stones in her pocket.  She traveled to Connecticut and Boston, where she taught in private schools, attended plays, and learned to dance.  A former Creative Writing teacher for The Writer’s Garrett and at The University of Texas at Dallas, Lori now teaches courses at Southern Methodist University and focuses her creative energy on her two sons and her novel manuscripts. Her stories and poetry have been widely published and won finalist places in national competitions, including the Glimmer Train Stories’ National Fiction Open. Her novel manuscript for young readers, Boarders, received an honorable mention from the 2006 Peace Writing Awards.

The title, SONG OF THE ORANGE MOONS, reflects the lyrical nature of three girls’ stories and alludes to the orange tree where pivotal decisions occur.  This mosaic of stories tracks the intertwined childhoods of two girls and that of their neighbor, a widowed woman.  In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, the three main characters all share the delicate and self-conscious journey to womanhood.  Two young girls from Jewish and Christian families and their elderly widow next door try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world.  All three search for love and meaning in a variety of places—a charismatic church, a Depression-era orphanage, a moonlit Savannah park,  an orthodox Jewish boarding school—and end up finding lasting strength in the power of their friendships.