Nina: Adolescence

Amy Hassinger grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and attended Barnard College (1994 Grad), and later, the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She has studied ballet, and modern and jazz dance, which formed the basis for much of the dance material in Nina: Adolescence.

Hassinger has also lived in New York City, San Francisco, Maine, Iowa, and now in Michigan with her husband and daughter. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, as well as, has taught English to both middle school and undergraduate students, worked as an educational consultant and technical editor, and written a Maine studies textbook for middle and secondary school students.

Her work has also been published in Blithe House Quarterly and MsFit Magazine. In 1994, she received the Peter S. Prescott Prize for Writing, and, at the Writers’ Workshop, she was awarded the Joseph E. and Ursil I. Callen Scholarship as well as a Teaching-Writing Fellowship.

From the first few minutes of this audiobook, the listener will be riveted. A family tragedy leaves the title character riddled with guilt, and now, as a 15-year-old, Nina wears that guilt like a second skin. Nina's artist mother works through her grief by creating a series of nude portraits of her daughter; the plot follows the events that surround the showing of the paintings. Mia Barron reads with a sweet, precise voice that suits the melancholy tone of Hassinger's novel. The listener can sympathize with Nina and reflect on her question: How far must one go to set things right? This is a beautifully written novel that is touchingly performed. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine