“A treasure that I didn’t know I was looking for.” —Rabih Alameddine, author of The Angel of HistoryFenton Johnson’s lyrical prose and searching sensibility explore what it means to choose solitude and to celebrate the notion that solitude is a legitimate and dignified calling. He delves into the lives and works of nearly a dozen iconic solitaries he considers his kindred spirits, from Thoreau at Walden Pond and Emily Dickenson in Amherst, to the fiercely ...

Part retrospective, part memoir, Fenton Johnson's collection Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays explores sexuality, religion, geography, the AIDS crisis, and more. Johnson's wanderings take him from the hills of Kentucky to those of San Francisco, from the streets of Paris to the sidewalks of Calcutta. Along the way, he investigates questions large and small: What's the relationship between artists and museums, illuminated in a New Guinean display of shrunken heads? What's the diff...

Two generations of a Kentucky family struggle with loss and reunion in a novel by a Lambda Award winner: "Brilliant . . . emotional jolts lurk on every page." — Entertainment WeeklyDespite the emotional distance that has long existed between them, Raphael Hardin has left San Francisco to care for his dying father in his rural Kentucky hometown. Raphael had finally made a life for himself in California, away from the tiny Appalachian town of Strang Knob—but...

Having taken great risks—to immigrate to America, to take monastic vows—Bengali physician Meena Chatterjee and Brother Flavian are each seeking safety and security when they encounter Johnny Faye, a Vietnam vet, free spirit, and expert marijuana farmer. Amid the fields and forests of a Trappist monastery, Johnny Faye patiently cultivates Meena's and Flavian's capacity for faith, transforming all they thought they knew about duty and desire. In turn they offer him an experience of civilizat...

A spirited Southern woman upends the insular world of her small Kentucky town in this acclaimed debut novel by "a storyteller of distinction" ( Publishers Weekly).Kentucky, 1944. Though she hails from a Fundamentalist Baptist family, there is nothing conventional about Martha Bragg Pickett Miracle. In her youth, she smoked cigarettes, rode motorcycles, and snuck across the Knob Fork River to buy beer from Catholics—and fall in love with one. Twenty...

“This book is a treasure-chest of wisdom and beauty and fun. Brother Paul’s delight in the world, and his gift for putting words to wonder, would make his old novice master Thomas Merton beam. Best of all, a deep sense of contentment and peace arises from these pages that can remind the monk in every one of us how we might choose to live.” —Pico Iyer, author of The Half Known Life: In Search of ParadiseA contemplative monk’s musings on living a...

Observing an encounter between Catholic and Buddhist monks in 1996 at the Abbey of Gethsemani, near where he grew up in rural Kentucky, Fenton Johnson found himself unable to make the sign of the cross. His distance from his childhood faith had become so great -- he considered himself a rational, skeptical man -- that he could not participate in this most basic ritual. Impelled by this troubling experience, Johnson began a search for the meaning of the spiritual life, a journey that took h...

A profound meditation on accepting and celebrating one's solitude.Solitude is the inspirational core for many writers, artists, and thinkers. Alone with our thoughts, we can make discoveries that matter not only to us but to others. To be solitary is not only to draw sustenance from being alone, but to know that our ultimate responsibility is not only to our partner or our own offspring, but to a larger community.Fenton Johnson's lyrical prose and searching...

Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another. Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us.Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition ...

Fenton was born on May 7th' 1888 in the American state of Chicago. He represented the Harlem Renaissance writers in the early 20th century, and self-published three poetry collections: A Little Dreaming in 1913, Visions of the Dusk in 1915, and Songs of the Soil in 1916. Having made quite a name as a poet, essayist, author, editor and educator, he expired in 1958.

Essayist Ryan Britt got a sex education from dirty pictures of dinosaurs, made out with Jar Jar Binks at midnight, and figured out how to kick depression with a Doctor Who Netflix binge. Alternating between personal anecdote, hilarious insight, and smart analysis, Luke Skywalker Can't Read contends that Barbarella is good for you, that monster movies are just romantic comedies with commitment issues, that Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are total hipsters, and, most ...

How can we be more mindful when the world is this f*cked up?How to Stay Human in a F*cked Up World is the fresh, engaging answer to this important question. If you’ve tried mindfulness before and failed, we get it. Likely you were told to sit on a pillow in a dark room, meditate, or count your breaths. But mindfulness isn’t about separating ourselves from the problems in the world. Instead, it is about re-learning how to get out there, connect with the suf...