A deadly epidemic and racial segregation at the turn of the last century causes a young woman to flee for a new life with meaning and hope, despite a sense that things will never be the same. Arriving in New York City, she encounters the latest industrial wonders and the shadows of the industrial masses left behind. A burgeoning new art world-including the impressionist work of painter Mary Cassett, a beloved relative and a kind stranger with a camera-figures in her new life.

The quiet letting go of Autumn, the reflective stillness of Winter, the bright rebirth of Spring, and the flourishing warmth of Summer trace the natural path of grief as it grows and changes to fit the spaces left behind by those we love. Easy-to-use exercise guides and activities invite readers to explore the changeable nature of grief through the ebb and flow of the seasons.As well as contributions from diverse creative practitioners, poems from Dr. Robert Neimeyer and reflection...

After a fatal epidemic, a young Colette Stonethrower ­flees her village to a life as an orphanage guardian, until another tragedy changes everything. As she leaves again on faith, migrating far from the place of her birth, she meets a talented, idealistic stranger and makes a friend from a foreign land who becomes her trusted confidant. While her new life reveals her purpose—fighting for the working poor and the destitute, exposing corruption and advocating for the arts—Colette...

A lyrical and evocative memoir from Frances Mayes, the Bard of Tuscany, about coming of age in the Deep South and the region’s powerful influence on her life.The author of three beloved books about her life in Italy, including Under the Tuscan Sun and Every Day in Tuscany, Frances Mayes revisits the turning points that defined her early years in Fitzgerald, Georgia. With her signature style and grace, Mayes explores the power of landscape, the ide...

Widely regarded as the "rock star" of American poetry, Mary Oliver is a writer whose words have long had the power to move countless readers. Regularly topping the national poetry best-seller list and drawing thousands to her sold-out readings across the coutnry, Oliver is unparalleled in her impact. As noted in the Los Angeles Times, so many "go to her for solace, regeneration and inspiration" that it is not surprising Vice President Joe Biden chose to read one of her poems durin...

A contemporary American masterpiece about music, race, an unforgettable man, and an unreal America during the Civil War eraAt the heart of this remarkable novel is Thomas Greene Wiggins, a nineteenth-century slave and improbable musical genius who performed under the name Blind Tom.Song of the Shank opens in 1866 as Tom and his guardian, Eliza Bethune, struggle to adjust to their fashionable apartment in the city in the aftermath of riots that had d...

Lyrical and cadent, dramatic and sometimes playful, these poems speak of love, longing, parting; of freedom and shattered dreams; of Saturday-night partying and the smells and sounds of Southern cities.

A wily American driving his psychiatrist crazy in Vienna. Prey of a wealthy countess who wants him comfortable and secure – and her very own. Master of his domain – his sealed, darkened, disheveled apartment on a dank Vienna sidestreet. Abigail was not the girl for Sam. She was a brash, sexy American coed with only men on her mind. And se had Sam very much on her mind at the moment…

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize"You read Lydia Davis to watch a writer patiently divide the space between epiphany and actual human beings by first halves, then quarters, then eighths, and then sixteenths, into infinity," says The Village Voice. Indeed, Lydia Davis is mathematician, philosopher, sculptor, jeweler, and scholar of the minute. Few writers map the process of thought as well as she, few perceive with such charged intelligence.T...

Historians claim him as one of Americas most revered presidents. But to his rambunctious sons Abraham Lincoln was above all a playful and loving father. Here is Lincoln as seen by two of his boys: Willie thrilled to be on his first train trip when Lincoln was deciding to run for president; Willie and Tad barging into Cabinet meetings to lift Lincolns spirits in the early days of the Civil War; Tad accompanying him to Richmond just after the Souths defeat. With the war raging and the Union ...

The saga of The Great Storm in Galveston, Texas in 1900 comes to life once more.The year is 1900, Galveston flourishes in the Gilded Age. It hails as the pride of Texas exports.On the morning of September 8th, 1900, the hopes and dreams of Galvestonians will come to a tragic halt. In a time before storms were named, The Great Storm of Galveston, Texas has all but become a legend.Through the eyes of Clara and the Gladys family, the past comes alive w...

In his debut chapbook of poetry, Saeed Jones walks on the periphery of the South, those places on the outskirts of town, in bars after midnight, and on dangerous backroads where most people keep their heads down or look the other way. Through Texas and Tennessee, Alabama and the riverbeds of the Mississippi, these poems wrap themselves in cloaks of masks and comfort; garments we learn are flammable if we stand too close to flames. D. A. Powell says of Saeed's work, "Like Aeneas carrying hi...