One of The New Yorker's "Books We Loved in 2017"A Grace Paley Reader compiles a selection of Paley’s writing across genres, showcasing her breadth of work as well as her extraordinary insight and brilliant economy of words."A writer like Paley," writes George Saunders, “comes along and brightens language up again, takes it aside and gives it a pep talk, sends it back renewed, so it can do its job, which is to wake us up.” ...

These forty essays from the New York Times' City section tell "stories of human life in all its quirky richness" ( The Boston Globe).Featuring a cast of stellar writers, this collection brings some of the best essays from the City section to readers beyond the five boroughs. New York Stories profiles people like sixteen-year-old Barbara Ott, who surfs the waters off Rockaway in Queens, and Sonny Payne, the beloved panhandler of the F trai...

"The stories are fast with page-turning addictiveness, filled with gems of street-smart dialogue…Noir collections don't get much better than this."— New York Journal of BooksThis volume includes the two underground cult-classic novels By the Balls and Five Shots and a Funeral, along with two brand-new short stories, a new introduction, and over a dozen short essays by industry luminaries. The tales follow the exploits of Ben Drake, a dete...

In "The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman," the esteemed poet transcends the boundaries of conventional verse to capture the profound essence of American identity and spirit during a tumultuous era. Drawing heavily from his experiences in the Civil War, Whitman's literary style is characterized by free verse and a fervent emotional resonance, blending the personal with the collective. The social and political backdrop of 19th-century America infuses these poems with a sense of urgency, as th...

**“As good as we humans are at division, we’re better still at connection. Ties That Bind shows this again and again.” —The New York Times“A testimony to the power of narrative and vision. . . . The collection successfully fulfills its mission: to make readers feel 'more connected, awake, and alive.'" —Publishers WeeklyA celebration of the relationships that bring us strength, purpose, and joy**Ties That Bind honors the people who...

"A wonderful introduction to Duberman's writing but is also a fitting tribute to a man who has devoted his life to promoting social change" ( Publishers Weekly).For the past fifty years, prize-winning historian Martin Duberman's groundbreaking writings have established him as one of our preeminent public intellectuals. Founder of the first graduate program in LGBT studies in the country, he is perhaps best known for his biographies of Pau...

I've amassed a collection of short stories over the past many years, and I've chosen the best of the batch. Some stories are sad, some will make you laugh, others are simply entertaining, and some are highly informative. I hope you'll enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed writing. Includes, "My Escape from the Psychiatric Unit," "Get Out Of My Grape Factory," and "Jill's Job." Twenty-five plus stories!

A kitbag of unconventional stories that capture a slice of the lives of quirky couples in prose and snappy dialogue. A feisty married pair return to familiar ground to rekindle romance. Veteran actors respond to a challenge to find the magic of Hepburn and Tracy. Supermarket shoppers overcome preconceptions of the boundaries of friendship over a bottle of sauce. Ambitious real estate entrepreneurs try to separate the fire from the smoke of a deal. A forest preserve provides the playground ...

The collection of fourteen short stories, written over a period of 12 years, runs the range from the tender, to the absurd, and back again. From the awkward blind date, to a humorous stay on a psychiatric ward, the collection explores the human mind and heart from varied points-of-view. This includes Milkweed, first place of the Missouri Literary Festival Short Story Contest, 2009: A Cold Touch, First place, Story Star, 2010: My Pop-Up, finalist, Glimmer Train Magazine, 2007: Ancient Campf...

Embroidering the Scarlet A traces the evolution of the “fallen woman” from the earliest novels to recent representations in fiction and film, including The Scarlet Letter, The Sound and the Fury, The Color Purple, and Love Medicine, and the films Juno and Mother and Child. Interweaving her own experience as a pregnant teen forced to surrender her daughter and pledge secrecy for decades, Ellerby interrogates “out-of-wedlock” mot...

The Call of the Wild White Fang The Iron Heel The Sea-Wolf Martin Eden "Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted ...