“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 ...

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...

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 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...

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...

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.

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 ...

The Three Pillars (Harmonization, Replacement, and Justice) describe an ethical path forward and away from the use of nonhuman primates in harmful research and scientific use. Conducting nonhuman primate research in an ethical way that acknowledges their moral importance requires satisfying more rigorous guidelines and regulations modeled on those that apply to similarly vulnerable human subjects, especially children and incarcerated persons. This Element argues for the moral necessity of ...

“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...

Since 2013, an organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project has brought before the New York State courts an unusual request—asking for habeas corpus hearings to determine whether Kiko and Tommy, two captive chimpanzees, should be considered legal persons with the fundamental right to bodily liberty.While the courts have agreed that chimpanzees share emotional, behavioural, and cognitive similarities with humans, they have denied that chimpanzees are persons on superficial and so...

Bloomsbury presents Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love by Elizabeth A. Johnson, read by Katherine FentonFor millennia plant and animal species have received little sustained attention as subjects of Christian theology and ethics in their own right.Focused on the human dilemma of sin and redemptive grace, theology has considered the doctrine of creation to be mainly an overture to the main drama of human bei...