Biography Books

Book SynopsisBeyoncé is not simply a pop sensation. She is a cultural phenomenon empowering the oppressed and dispossessed, challenging white privilege and misogyny and exploding gender politics. But who is Beyoncé Knowles-Carter? And how did a small girl from Houston become the strong confident woman whose albums sell in their millions and whose songs have become anthems against racial and sexual discrimination and oppression? This biography sets out to reveal exactly that.

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Book SynopsisMountain Stories is an illustrated memoir of journeys through some of Scotland’s most beautiful landscapes, including Skye's Cuillin, Knoydart, Assynt and the Far North. Writing during lockdown, author and artist Heather Dawe finds telling these stories a powerful means of reconnection with the mountains when they are physically inaccessible. Dawe's journeys are made by walking, running, cycling or sea-kayak. The stories are a reflection of the importance of wild places and the inspiration, art and culture associated with them.

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Book SynopsisWith a back-story of running round the route of the classic Alpine journey the Tour de Mont Blanc, Heather Dawe explores the drive behind mountain running and racing, and how simply being in the mountains has inspired herself and other climbers, writers, artists and innovators through the years.

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Book SynopsisThe story of Thin Lizzy as told in the words of over 350 fans

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Book SynopsisBelieve in Them is the first-ever memoir of Luma Mufleh, the widely honoured founder and director of Fugees Family, a non-profit organisation devoted to child survivors of war. She tells her extraordinary story with the moving, inspirational force with which she delivered her TED talk, viewed over 1.8 million times. Herself a refugee, Luma fled from her native Jordan to the U.S. in fear for her life if she continued living in Jordan as a gay Muslim, leaving behind a family who had trouble accepting her when she came out as gay. One day, while driving through Georgia she took a wrong turn and noticed some boys playing football in the street. She discovered that they were refugees. The Fugees football team was created. Soon she was not just 'coach' but also friend and mentor to these children and their families. As time passed, it became clear to Luma that the Fugees needed more than just football coaching from her - they needed support, encouragement and education. "Don't feel sorry for them," were Mufleh's grandmother's words about refugee children to her young granddaughter. "Believe in them." And that is precisely what Mufleh has done.Trade Review"I highly encourage you to read Mufleh's wonderful memoir, Believe in Them. Mufleh is a gifted storyteller who delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren't supposed to be possible for children born into trauma." Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

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Book SynopsisPeter Eckersley wasn't among the greatest of Lancashire cricketers with bat and ball but no other player can match his qualities of Charisma, Loyalty, Leadership, Bravery, Courage and Sacrifice. The author has brought to life this largely forgotten Lancashire Cricketer.

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Book SynopsisI am in the very fortunate position of having been able to contribute to two waves of feminism: The Women’s Liberation Movement and the new wave that is taking place now. Trigger Warning: My Lesbian Feminist Life is both an engaging autobiography and a fascinating account of feminist history. From the heady days of the Women’s Liberation Movement through to the backlash against radical feminism as neoliberal laissez-faire attitudes took hold. Fast forward to the current re-examination of feminism in light of the #MeToo movement and an emerging new wave of radical feminism. Sheila Jeffreys' bold account makes it clear that the feminism and lesbianism she has championed for decades is needed more than ever. With honesty and frankness, she tells of victories and setbacks in her unrelenting commitment to women’s freedom from men’s violence, especially the violence inherent in pornography and prostitution. We also learn what her steadfastness has cost her in terms of personal and professional rewards. Trigger Warning places radical feminism within a cultural, social and intellectual context while also taking us on a personal journey. Sheila Jeffreys has tirelessly crossed the globe to advance radical feminist theory and practice and we are invited to share in the intellectual and political crossroads she has encountered during her life. Accessible yet detailed and rigorous, this landmark volume is essential reading for everyone who has ever wondered what radical feminism really is.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Chapter 1 | Origins 7 Chapter 2 | Finding Feminism: The 1970s 39 Chapter 3 | Choosing to Be a Lesbian 67 Chapter 4 | Changing Sexuality 95 Chapter 5 | The End of a Dream 125 Chapter 6 | Australia 153 Chapter 7 | The Doldrums 185 Chapter 8 | Back to the Struggle 217 Acknowledgements 233 Other Books by Sheila Jeffreys 235

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Book Synopsis"Basking in the twilight of Late Romanticism, Meier ...finds the rays seductive but damaging ...Meier's sophisticated debut promises further developments."-Publishers Weekly on Terrain Vague Domesticity, nature, and heartbreak inhabit this seriously playful second collection. Through precise description and inventive vocabulary, Meier's poems are relentless in their efforts to sincerely address contemporary uncertainty and love. A great book for readers looking to rediscover Romantic poetry: "Embrace was a word first used of forts, / until the one body fell down inside the other body, and was lost."

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Book SynopsisThe first English collection of Cros' writings: from treatises on interplanetary communication to a sardonic science of seductionAn indefinable polymath of fin de siècle Paris, Charles Cros made work that was simultaneously grounded in literature and science. The Science of Love and Other Writings brings together for the first time in English all of his literary prose. The collection includes proto-science-fiction stories; prose poems; an essay on methods of communication with other planets; and the patent application written with his brother for a (never-built) notating keyboard. The literary imagination Cros was able to bring into the field of science was matched by the humorous scientific sobriety he introduced into his literature, which he did nowhere so effectively as in the title piece, The Science of Love: depicting a young scientist's painstakingly executed seduction of a woman for the sake of scientific analysis. Also included are stories such

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Book SynopsisThis is a memoiristic book and a dual portrait, built around intense friendships with two leading public intellectuals who achieved celebrity status—Susan Sontag on a global scale, George Steiner principally in Europe, though also for a time in the US. For audiences at Woody Allen movies Sontag was the prime embodiment of the term “intellectual,” whose famous 1965 essay “Notes on Camp” won her an enormous following. For viewers of French, German and British television over decades Steiner was the primary interview show talking head, igniting controversy on many fronts, while also commanding a loyal audience for thirty years as a book critic at The New Yorker. To know Sontag and Steiner, as this memoir suggests, was often to feel overmatched and yet also bemused and awe-struck. Both of them gave off an air of omniscience and self-confidence, as if they had taken to heart the words of the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, who wrote, “I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me.”Maestros & Monsters is the work of a well-known public intellectual who was close to Sontag and Steiner over a half century, and who managed to bring them together on several occasions—the only times they ever met. Those encounters are among the most bizarre episodes in this narrative, which also features extended encounters with such literary figures as Arthur Koestler, Edward Said, Phillip Rieff, James Wood and others.Trade ReviewA delicious portrait of two difficult, brilliant intellectuals, and a spirited vindication of criticism as a noble calling.--Garth GreenwellThis superb book takes us back to the last moments of the golden age of American letters. --Cornel WestRobert Boyers has been in close contact with every seismic shift in literary, intellectual, artistic, and academic quarters.--Joyce Carol OatesA moving contribution to the history of our intellectual culture.--Darryl PinckneyA thrillingly generous book ... in the grand tradition of Samuel Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," Sainte-Beuve's biographical sketches, and Turgenev's "Literary Reminiscences."--Philip Lopate Table of ContentsIntroductionPart One: The Fascination of What's Difficult: Susan Sontag Chapter 1 Seriously Uncool? 21Chapter 2 Is This Rude? 34Chapter 3 Disappointments and Dismissals 44Chapter 4 Authority Figure. 58Chapter 5 Turn of the Cultural Wheel 70Chapter 6 The Therapeutic 80Chapter 7 To Teach or Not 90Chapter 8 Motherhood and Sexuality. 99Chapter 9 Rhapsode 106Part Two: Impossible to Tell: George SteinerChapter 1 A First Meeting. 113Chapter 2 I Had a Good Time 120Chapter 3 Under Attack 128Chapter 4 Master Teacher 139Chapter 5 An Evening with Arthur Koestler. 151Chapter 6 A Brave Beginning 162 Chapter 7 Creative Distortion. 170Chapter 8 I Wish You Hadn't Done That. 182Chapter 9. An Academy of One 195Part ThreeAfterword 203Notes 209Names Index 217About The Author 219Photographs 221

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Book Synopsis“The home of great, sex-driven stories from female creators, across a wide variety of genres, genders, and sexualities.” — i09 The future of filth is here! The latest in the Smut Peddler series of erotic anthologies, Sex Machine is a stellar array of comics talent taking sex to the furthest reaches of your imagination. Whether it’s out in wild space or deep in coded virtual realms, the galaxy’s sexiest robots, cyborgs, AI’s, and some humans here and there explore their hottest desires in the bravest of new worlds. Our most wildly inventive collection yet, Sex Machine reminds fans of quality filth why Smut Peddler is the last word in top-shelf sexy comics. Featuring the work of FIONA STAPLES, FAITH ERIN HICKS, MEREDITH MCCLAREN, BLUE DELLIQUANTI, and many more!Trade Review“A full array of relationships, bodies, situations, and art styles. Consent is present and enthusiastic.” — LOVE IN PANELS “[Smut Peddler] proved once and for all that erotic comics focusing on women’s sexualities could sell.” — THE MARY SUE “Features titillating technological tales from more than a dozen superstar creators.” — PASTE MAGAZINE “The home of great, sex-driven stories from female creators, across a wide variety of genres, genders, and sexualities.” — i09

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Book SynopsisBy 1996, millions of South Sudanese have been killed, died of starvation, or fled the decades-long civil war ravaging their country. So when the Presbyterian Church in the United States begins recruiting a development team to work with war refugees in the region, Caroline and her husband Mark are eager to help. But it’s only months before ghosts from their individual pasts whistle in to disrupt their marriage and their new postings. Caroline finds relief in teaching and peace work in South Sudan, but the heavy responsibility she now carries for dozens of vulnerable families—coupled with the prevailing ideas of Biblical womanhood that put pressure on her personal life—makes it increasingly clear that Caroline is under-prepared for the high-stakes crisis in which she is now embedded. Through a number of consequential mistakes and increasingly debilitating self-doubt, Caroline clings to hope that her willingness to stand with the South Sudanese will count for something in the end. A deeply personal examination of South Sudan at war—and a woman at war with herself—Today is Tomorrow shines a warm light on the darkest of places.Trade Review"I have found the book hugely anthropological, historical, cultural and Spiritual. It is an adventure compelled by the love of God. “Today is Tomorrow” is indeed an incredible statement of hope for all who would like to see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12— Bishop Dr. Arkanjelo Wani Lemi, Former Presiding Bishop of Africa Inland Church, Former Chair of the South Sudan Council of Churches, Chair of the Technical Committee for establishment of the Truth, Reconciliation and Healing Commission “Caroline Kurtz has a gift for weaving her personal life struggles with the threads of southern Sudanese life, where contestations produce resilience and pain meets joy. My African friends who read Today Is Tomorrow may wonder if such experiences of an American woman can be real. My American friends who read this may wonder if such experiences in Sudan can be anything but fiction. But knowing Caroline in America and working side-by-side with her in Sudan, I can say that the realities she describes with such sublime word pictures are all real. She is an artistic wordsmith, and it was my privilege to have her as my right arm at Wunlit where the people made their peace become real, mal mi chum-chum, sweet peace, for a time.” — Bill Lowrey, Facilitator of Wunlit (South Sudan) People-to-People peace conference“As a person who had been involved in the 20th anniversary of the Wunlit Peace Conference, this book deeply moved me. Caroline should be proud of being part of this historical meeting. These rhetorics of war and peace continue to challenge us, and though the environment has changed politically, to say the least, there have been successes and failures, but South Sudan continues to seek peace.” — Machot A. Malou, Research Consultant with the Rift Valley Institute in South Sudan"[R]eal, raw and truly a sacred story... Kurtz shares her personal vulnerability with readers, creating not just an intellectual exploration of cross-cultural differences, but rather a heart-wrenching witness of what it means to give one’s whole life...not knowing whether one’s hopes or intentions will be realized. I recommend her story to anyone willing to dive deep into their own heart to face the haunting challenges and contradictions of seeking to do God’s will when there are no simple solutions." — Rev Dr. Sue Hudson, The Presbyterian Outlook"If you would like to get a better understanding of the complexities of a civil war, its destruction, human suffering, power struggles, peace restoration and reconciliation – this is one of the books to get your hands on." — Woman Zone (South Africa)

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Book SynopsisThis amazingly wise and nimble collection investigates the horrors inflicted on so-called “witches” of the past. The Witch of Eye unearths salves, potions, and spells meant to heal, yet interpreted by inquisitors as evidence of evil. The author describes torture and forced confessions alongside accounts of gentleness of legendary midwives. In one essay about a trial, we learn through folklore that Jesus’s mother was a midwife who cured her own son’s rheumatism. In other essays there are subtle parallels to contemporary discourse around abortion and environmental destruction. Nuernberger weaves in her own experiences, too. There’s an ironic look at her own wedding, an uncomfortable visit to the Prague Museum of Torture, and an afternoon spent tearing out a garden in a mercurial fit. Her researched material is eye-opening, lively, and often funny. An absolutely thrilling collection.Trade ReviewReading Group Choices, Most Read Books from RGC 2021 Reading Group Choices 2021 Official Selection 2021 Foreword INDIES Finalist for Essays Publishers Weekly, "Books for Short Attention Spans 2021" Entropy, “Best of 2020-2021: Nonfiction Books” The Rumpus, “What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Women’s History” The Rumpus, “What to Read When 2021 Is Just Around the Corner” The Week, "Megan Giddings' 6 Favorite Magical Books" "Part memoir, part cultural criticism, entirely fascinating." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Drawing connections to contemporary social justice issues, philosophy, and feminism, poet and essayist Nuernberger relates a social history of so-called witches across centuries and the globe. In brief, lyrical retellings, she profiles women including Walpurga Hausmännin, a midwife executed for witchcraft in 16th-century Bavaria, and Maria Gonçalves Cajada, convicted of sorcery in 17th-century colonial Brazil. Their stories become a lens on Nuernberger’s own experiences, whether as simple as a walk in the forest, as disturbing as a visit to the Prague Museum of Torture, or as personal as her wedding." —“Books for Short Attention Spans 2021,” Publishers Weekly "This book is a social history, threaded through with folklore, mythology, current events, and glimpses into the author's own marriage. It is a poetic and hypnotic trance of a read." —Booklist "The Witch of Eye turns its gaze on the witches of history and the multiplicity of narratives about their experiences which nearly always drained into one gutter: the official witch trial court transcriptions. Kathryn Nuernberger reminds us that the women’s forced confessions and shouted-down explanations have become the only 'historical' records, but in refusing to accept the voice of a predominantly white male justice system as the singular truth, Nuernberger uses her own experiences—along with contemporary court cases—to offer a voice to those women who also longed to deface the historical record but were not permitted to speak." —"7 Experimental Books Reshaping Historical Narratives," Electric Literature "This is quintessential reading not just for the wannabe witches among us, but for its nuanced telling of a cruel and silenced history. A compendium of pungent and poignant biographical narratives of numerous so-called witches, The Witch of Eye is difficult to put down. Nuernberger deftly weaves memoir with well-researched material to create a fascinating, idiosyncratic intellectual history, plucked from the annals of science, medicine, theology, and feminist and critical theory. . . .you must read The Witch of Eye slowly and with astonishment, not unlike the way you witness the work of a camera placed next to a bud that slowly and inexplicably blossoms before your eyes." —"LANGUAGE IS THE SPELL: KATHRYN NUERNBERGER’S THE WITCH OF EYE," The Rumpus "The breadth of [The Witch of Eye's] exploration is made possible in part due to Nuernberger’s nimble, probing thought, which propels this book as it visits both reality and unreality. Her propensity to question given truths foregrounds the book with wonder as Nuernberger identifies with history’s reported 'witches' for the potential she sees in their alternate, subjective, previously unspoken narratives. Nuernberger’s The Witch of Eye cultivates a space of wonder, a mystical space in which one may co-author reality alongside myth, science, religion, justice, and witchcraft—a space to ponder the well-kept secrets of humanity." —Southeast Review, online "Kathryn Nuernberger's essay collection The Witch of Eye delves into lives both past and present with amazing clarity to share their truths." —Largehearted Boy, online "Meticulously researched." —Monitor Saint Paul, online and print "These essays are rich, dense with information and images, and yet so clear-eyed in their focus and project. Like the hagstones—the naturally-occurring stones with holes, the 'stone monocle' she describes in 'The Eye of the Hagstone'—'they can help you see what is real.'" —Brevity "A beautifully written blend of poetry, nonfiction, and research." —"Megan Giddings' 6 Favorite Magical Books," The Week "The Witch of Eye is a stunning book of essays, at turns contemplative, and vehement in its insistence that we not look away from not only our history, but who we as a society still are today." —Mom Egg Review, online and print "The essays accomplish what essays do best. They dive into these lives to see what the past can reveal about us and our world today. Or as the author says: 'I wonder about … what in each of us is a little bit witch.'" —Reading Group Choices blog “Kathryn Nuernberger is the witch of seeing clearly and telling all the truths at once. Her searing, all-seeing EYE casts a brilliant spell of honesty and power. In language ranging from the meditative to the brutally funny. Nuernberger stitches histories and hexes together, elegantly tracing the threads between how we talk about violence, nature, industry, and culture. This is a collection of wild and astonishing scope—excavating the past in ways that are entirely modern and necessary.” —V. V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love Marriage “A magnificent book, full of incidental pleasures, and incidental terrors, and fundamental truths. Nuernberger writes like a Baudelaire who instead of walking across a city can walk across time.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labors “Seething with the historical, the scholarly, and the personal, The Witch of Eye is an igneous cauldron for the witchiest of intellectuals and revolutionaries. Dip in a ladle and pull out the blistering truths of how women are seen, how women see themselves. Nuernberger has mixed this potion with the subtlety of Rachel Cusk and the sharpness of Ágota Kristóf, and the result is a twisting, profound, shape-shifting work of art, an incisive elixir to be consumed again and again.” —Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra “Kathryn Nuernberger’s investigations of historic witch trials and their contemporary echoes perform linguistic sorcery. In Salem courtrooms and university Title IX panels, the essays in The Witch of Eye interrogate the interrogators, asking what cruelties we allow, revel in, mythologize, turn away from. They stay up late, parsing spells: a walk in the woods, a black toad hung up by its heels, lavender wine. What will make us whole? They root around in centuries of testimony, sorting truth from lies and bravery from cowardice, then haul out the necessary witch, the one we need for survival.” —Kim Todd, author of Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis

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Book SynopsisA harrowing and heartfelt essay collection weaving narratives about family, gun violence, art, and the American Dream. Two weeks before her grandfather purchased a gun, Ashley Marie Farmer’s grandmother tripped as she walked across their living room. It was a swift accident on an ordinary day: her chin hit the floor; her cervical spine shattered. She asked, “I’m paralyzed, aren’t I?” Later, thinking to put her out of her misery, he kissed his sleeping wife of sixty-three years and shot her in the chest. He tried to shoot himself too, but the weapon broke apart in his hands. He was immediately arrested. This is the scene we are greeted with at the outset of Farmer’s stunning collection of hybrid essays. One of its greatest features is the variety of voices, a kaleidoscopic approach that corrals in autobiography, audio transcripts, media, legal documents, internet comments, short prose pieces, and more. The result is a moving, deeply satisfying, and eye-opening story. Ashley Marie Farmer is a profound writer who is clearly here to stay, her voice a true gift to our times.Trade Review2022 Foreword INDIES Finalist in "Essays" No. 6 in "Salon’s Favorite Books of 2022" The New York Times, "Mourning Songs for Lives, and Art, That Could Have Been" Buzzfeed, "17 Books from Independent Publishers You Need to Read this Summer" Buzzfeed, "17 Short Story And Essay Collections For When You Want To Laugh, Cry, Think, Or Swoon" LitReactor, "LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2022" 2022 International Rubery Book Awards Nonfiction Winner "Lyrical and poignant." —Roxane Gay on "Mercy" "This cataclysmic event — a very public story collides with a family's specific, private loss — is the axis around which Farmer's meditations and explorations of guilt, place, grief and violence revolve, in memorable essays that take both traditional and experimental forms. Interspersed throughout are fascinating transcripts of interviews she recorded earlier with both grandparents, allowing them to be known on the page as the dynamic, loving couple they were." —Erin Keane, Salon, "Favorite Books of 2022" "Remembering an act of violence born not out of malice, but love, Farmer’s narrative is melancholic, but still full of hope." —"Mourning Songs for Lives, and Art, That Could Have Been," by Kat Chow, The New York Times "What follows are essays about gun culture, violence, and what it means to die in America. But Farmer also takes a hard look at what it means to live; there are delightful passages of transcripts made from taped interviews of her grandparents reminiscing. There are also Farmer’s own questions about teaching and writing while stringing together adjunct jobs in order to barely make rent, complicated untanglings of family histories and mental health, and examinations of relationships, from the platonic to the romantic. Dear Damage, an open letter to demons of the past, still gives plenty of space for connection and joy." —"17 Books from Independent Publishers You Need to Read this Summer" by Wendy J. Fox, Buzzfeed "[G]ripping from the start...a truly unique and fascinating book." —"17 Short Story And Essay Collections For When You Want To Laugh, Cry, Think, Or Swoon," Buzzfeed "Poet Farmer (The Women) parses her complicated family history to create a heart-wrenching portrait of love, family, loss, and aging in this astounding collection.....In 'Mercy,' she writes, 'while I’m skeptical of mining beauty from pain... or landing on a diamond takeaway or even claiming good can come from it, I’ve learned that time-freezing anguish makes for micro-moments of unexpected reverence.' Farmer exceeds her intention; the moments she depicts teem with power. This potent work introduces Farmer as a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly starred review "A slim...but striking book." —Kirkus Reviews "The short, connected, associative essays in Dear Damage are by turns ecstatic, stark, poetic, deeply and necessarily sorrowful, and also reportorial....Farmer is a curator of the stories of others, stories that are also her selves: writer, family member, and chorus in a Greek tragedy too. This book announces itself as a collection of essays, but it is also autobiography, commentary, legal transcripts, revised memories, and dream scenarios, all told with the vulnerability and intimacy of a writer a few lucky readers already know as a powerful voice talking back to 'Damage.'" —Andrew Tonkovich, Los Angeles Review of Books "[A] deft hand at compressed narratives filled to emotional brims." —"Beauty and Lightness: Gina Nutt and Ashley Marie Farmer in Conversation," The Millions "A love letter and a dirge, a rumination on grief, family, a life in the arts, and never less than beautiful." —"Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2022" by Ben Tanzer, LitReactor "Farmer’s straightforward prose...appears effortless." —Harvard Review Online "Dear Damage delves into an exploration of beginnings and endings, lightness and darkness, as well as the damaging policies that plague us as a country, and more. The book is ingeniously crafted using multiple forms—from legal documents to internet comments—all of which seamlessly refresh the memoir genre." —Rebecca Holcomb for Southeast Review "[D]azzling." —Ryan Ridge, Southwest Review "Open it up, Farmer seems to implore us, set the needle to play, and listen. Just listen." —Barrett Bowlin, Salamander Magazine "Dear Damage caused me to repeatedly lose my breath, caught as I was between my desire to see what would happen next, and how it was going to happen, as well as wanting to know more about the ideas, decisions and characters—especially their lives before this—that graced the pages before me." —Ben Tanzer, LitReactor Magazine "[A] searing yet tender work of interrogation.” —The Swell and the Fury "Farmer shows she can grasp a readership with rare authorial honesty." —LEO Weekly "In Dear Damage, Ashley Marie Farmer has given us a window into her life experience through compelling storytelling, lovely language, and welcome grace....Farmer says, in the book, 'I’m trying to build a house.' Brava, I say, for showing us all the rooms." —Good River Review "Her [essays] are vivid and full of carefully observed details, and darkness is the essential backdrop to light." —"In Dear Damage, Tragedy Foregrounds the Strength of Ashley Farmer's Family" by Geoff Wichert, 15 bytes "Dear Damage plumbs devastating loss, family, grief, gun violence, and love—all with glittering tenderness. Ashley Marie Farmer’s mind is vast and complex, and her compassion stuns as she makes 'a quiet study of pain' while acknowledging that 'maybe pain has made a study of me.' These essays leave me aching and awestruck." —Gina Nutt, author of Night Rooms "Dear Damage is many things at once: an expertly written collection of literary essays, the riveting story of an unfathomable act of violence, a work of breathtaking empathy, a sublime and generous account of love and grief, and the account of an enormously talented writer's self-creation. Together, they assemble into a book that is somehow all of that and more: a marvel, a reckoning, possibly a miracle." —Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun “Prose in the hands of a poet, Dear Damage is 'radiant and unabridged,' a story of love and violence set within the incoherence of American values. Rarely are readers gifted with the work of a mind equally incisive as it is elegant. Ashley Marie Farmer’s important Dear Damage speaks to all times from within the salience of our own particular troubled American now.” —Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow Past reviews: "Whip smart and empathetic...all of it rendered beautifully, the poet’s ear and the proser’s eye working together to encapsulate and expound." —Christopher Kennedy, author of Clues From the Animal Kingdom “Reminiscent of Aimee Bender, Sheila Heti, and Aurelie Sheehan.” —Electric Lit “The conviction of Lydia Davis...and a linguistic inventiveness equal to that of Diane Williams.” —The Masters Review "Surreal verve and melancholy tenderness." —Gina Nutt, author of Night Room "A highly original work of art." —The Collagist "How do we read a book like Beside Myself? Like a gift. We study it from all sides, consider how it feels in our hands, read, consider, then read it again. " —The RumpusTable of ContentsCONTENTS ONE Mercy 7 Jobs Peak, 1985 14 Audio Transcript (Recorded January 2, 2014) 16 Aftermath 19 Lucy, 1975 28 Internet Comments, 2014-2015 29 Transcript: Celebrities 32 Contradiction, 2014 36 TWO American Dream Job 38 Nevada / St. Tropez, 1987 48 Slow Circles 49 Graceland, 1994 60 When the Gun Comes 62 Transcript: Hitchhikers 68 Animal Hours 72 Transcript: Shipyard 81 THREE Body Composition 84 Transcript: Vinyl 94 Minivan, 1994 95 Transcript: Beaches 96 Bill, 1925-2016 98 Seeing the Dead Alive 99 Transcript: Games 108 FOUR Transcript: Matrimony 111 The Book I Would’ve Written With No Trouble In It 118 Piano Hour, 1995 116 End of the Line 117 Green Girls 126 Transcript: Riptides 128 If 130 FIVE Second Person 133 Titles of Essays I Didn’t Write 142 Things You Don’t Have to Be Taught, 1982 143 Transcript: Hazards 144 No One is Waiting 146 APPENDIX Letter to the Public Defender 153 Motion to Dismiss 155 Acknowledgements 172 Publication Credits 173 Biographical Note 174

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Book SynopsisStreaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening is a collection of hybrid feminist narratives that perfectly captures the many paradoxes of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting the seemingly never-ended public catastrophes we experienced as a collective with the isolated lives we carried out in private.Longlisted for the 2023 PEN Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay Shifting effortless between social commentary and memoir, glimpses of history and threads of fiction, Stone, a lifelong feminist and longtime contributor to the Village Voice and NPR's Fresh Air, unapologetically observes against the backdrop of a Zoom call the evolution of feminism over the years, the gendered sexual politics underlying Jeffrey Toobin's public disgrace, rage and hope on the heels of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death, and the way we continue to pot and maintain our plants amidst the broken narrative of our world's future. As Stone says, It’s good this narrative has been broken. In the narrative that has been broken, people ignored the way so many things they wanted required the suffering of others. In a time when most of us felt more alone than ever before, Laurie Stone's Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening is a retroactive but no less timely reminder that we were less alone in our thoughts than we thought.Trade Review[S]hows Stone’s gifts as a critic....Fans of creative nonfiction will find Stone an animated guide to these disjointed times. —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY [B]ooks like Streaming Now are essential to continue cultivating our consideration for ourselves and others...Stone gives herself and us readers space to think, complain, scorn, wonder, celebrate, and mourn. And that is exactly what we all need as we continue to recover, learn, and change. —GABBI CISNEROS, Porchlight Books Each section of Streaming Now often tops or at least equals the previous one...If this tale had been written as fiction, it would be making one of those annual collections of best short stories. —BRANDON JUDELL, Medium Even the shortest paragraphs in this book embody Stone’s literary vitality and her palpable resistance to the weight of the pandemic. —STEPHANIE GEMMELL, Inklette Laurie Stone's strange and otherworldly postcards are captivating, erudite, and moving. What is particularly startling is when you realize that the strange place she is writing from is the heart. We should all make such a trip and, thankfully, now we have this beautiful book as a guide. —IRIS SMYLES, author of Dating Tips for the Umemployed Laurie Stone is the best writer I have encountered in quite a while. Her writing grabs me and in a sentence or two, I am in the middle of it. —JOHN LURIE, musician, painter, actor, director, and producer Somewhere along the way one recognizes that a simple seeming collection of pensées is really the coherent exploration of a distinct and valuable cultural point of view, one that we might have lost contact with, and that we are lucky to still have. —VINCE PASSARO, author of Violence, Nudity, Adult Content A witty, brutally honest meditation on how we live now, and most importantly, on the life worth living. Nothing is too small or too large for Laurie Stone’s laser vision—her willingness to say the things we’re not supposed to say or admit to doing the things we’re not supposed to do—all of which will keep you reading this book in one mad dash. —GLORIA JACOBS, editor and activist To my mind, Laurie Stone is a virtuousoi writer, and the "streaming" form—a kind of diary derived in part from blogs she has written on this site, particularly suits her genius. Her writing is full of attitude and has a defiant vibe I find completely compelling. Yes, she wants to entertain us—she is engaged in comedy—but its comedy of a most serious kind, like all real comedy. It's not schtick. Laurie means every word and the words ring true. Read this book! —ALEC MARSH, professor and author of Ezra Pound

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Book SynopsisIconic newscaster and Buddhist teacher chronicles the 1960s and ‘70s in India, the Bay Area, and beyondJoin “Scoop” Nisker on a wild ride from West to East and back in his quest for true self and enlightenment. Combining the best elements of memoir and social commentary, Nisker shares his own story to illuminate the spiritual hunger of modern America. His journey begins in Nebraska as the only young man in his small town to be Bar Mitzvah’ed, through the heyday of the Beats and hippies in the Bay Area from his vantage point as a high-profile newscaster, the birth of the environmental movement, and the social and spiritual blossoming of the West. This is a personal, guided tour of the outer and inner movements that joined together into today’s mindfulness movement, written by one of the leaders of both. 

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Book SynopsisA documentary-style collection of stories, poems, essays, and interviews by Southeastern Native American women.Upon Her Shoulders is a collection of stories, poems, and prose by Southeastern Native American women whose narratives attest to the hard work and activism required to keep their communities well and safe. This collection highlights Native female voices in the Southeast, a region and its peoples rarely covered in other publications.The editors have deep roots in the scholarship and culture of Native women. Featured prominently is the Lumbee community, where two of the editors (members of the Lumbee tribe themselves) teach at the nearby University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a center for scholarship about the Lumbee people.This volume honors the Native American tradition of passing on knowledge through stories and oral histories. With contributions by both professional and everyday writers, the collection spotlights these societies that have raised girls from an early age to be independent and competent leaders, to access traditional Native spirituality despite religious oppression, and to fight for justice for themselves and other Native people across the nation in the face of legal and societal oppression.Trade Review"Upon Her Shoulders is a book for everyone; the wisdom located within the pages, from American Indian women elders and from younger women, offers guideposts for living and learning that reinforce the power of story, of kin and community, and of place. The personal journeys detailed here are truly comprehensive as they use their gifts to challenge stereotypes, renew themselves through ceremony and medicine, and create just communities for all. Upon Her Shoulders is as much a manual for living as a priceless record of our journeys as American Indian women."—Malinda Maynor Lowery, The Lumbee Indians: An American StruggleTable of ContentsTable of Contents PART ONE: MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL, CHILD Introduction, Cherry Beasley My Question for Creator, Madison York Native American, Olivia Brown You Can Help Others Do More Than You Did, Ruth Revels A Firm Foundation to Withstand the Storm of Life, Mary Ann Elliott Mary Alice, Play for Us, Mary Alice Teets To Be a Part of It, Barbara Locklear Our People Are Moving in a Positive Direction, Mardella Sunshine Constanzo Richardson Reflection Questions for the Reader In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders PART TWO: SPIRIT MEDICINE Introduction, Ulrike Wiethaus Some Indian Women, Marijo Moore Spirit Medicine, Kim Pevia What It Takes to Believe in Physical Health and Community, Lisa Huggins Oxendine Clan Mother, Daphine L. Strickland Bruises of a Battered Woman, Christine Hewlin Not Anymore, Nora Dial-Stanley Farming Always Brings Us Home, Charlene Hunt Reflection Questions for the Reader In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders PART THREE: GETTING JUSTICE WHEN THERE WAS NONE Introduction, Mary Ann Jacobs Patchwork Images, Gayle Simmons Cushing The Alcatraz Occupation and the Advent of Civil Rights and American Indian Nationalism, Ruth Dial Woods The Black Lives Matter March in Pembroke: Women’s Perspectives, Mary Ann Jacobs and Flora Jacobs I Always Knew I Was Indian, Kay Oxendine Uncle R. Never Killed Nobody That Didn’t Deserve It, Mary Ann Jacobs Knowledge is Power, Rosa Winfree Reflection Questions for the Reader In Closing: Contemplating Words of Wisdom by Women Elders Contributor Biographies

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Book SynopsisMeet Jason: a college educated documentary film producer, cat parent of two, and one of San Francisco’s top drug dealers. After Jason’s world falls apart in LA, he moves to Berkeley for a fresh start with his kid brother. Just one problem: his long-closeted Adderall addiction has exploded into an out-of-control crystal meth binge. Within weeks, Jason plunges into the sprawling ParTy n’ ’Play subculture of the Bay Area’s gay community. It is a wildly decadent scene of drugs, group sex, and criminals, and yet it is also filled with surprising characters, people who are continually subverting Jason’s own presumptions of the stereotypical tweaker. Soon Jason becomes a dealer on the pretense of researching this tweaker world for a project that will carry him, like a life raft, back to the shores of a normal life. But his friendly entrepreneurial spirit and trusting disposition disarm clients and rival dealers alike. The money begins to roll in as demand increases to frightening levels. Suddenly, Jason is in control of the entire crystal meth market for San Francisco’s gay community, even as he finds himself nodding off behind the wheel of his car, or walking down the sidewalk. As friends and family work frantically to steer him towards recovery, Jason resists, chasing something else: a sleepless nirvana fueled by sex, drugs, and the Tweakerworld. With painful honesty, Jason Yamas has crafted a landmark narrative that is not just a personal account of addiction, but a portrait of a vulnerable, largely undocumented community of people who, for many reasons, have been marginalized to the point of invisibility.

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Book SynopsisThis is a story of a young girl from a small town with a big dream that took her to Juilliard, Broadway, summer stock, the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera, and introduced her to her husband William Zeckendorf Jr. Her memoir overflows with the glamour of a life lived among the famous figures of mid-century New York society and the grit necessary to succeed in the professional world of dance. Fascinated by art and architecture, the vivacious ballerina Nancy Zeckendorf became a formidable development partner with her husband and a philanthropic leader in the performing arts – her fundraising ability is an art form unto itself. “I love hardware stores and tools,” she said of her common-sense approach to construction projects. Indeed, Nancy was a guiding force in the expansion of the Santa Fe Opera, the Lensic Performing Arts Center, and the premier community of Los Miradores where she lives now in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Book Synopsis Nationally regarded trial attorney and media personality Brian Claypool weaves together his personal story of trauma and his experiences litigating notorious child abuse cases to show how our cultural code of silence endangers children and what we can do about it. Litigation and civil rights attorney Brian Claypool has squared off in the courtroom against child predators in some of America’s most notorious sexual abuse cases. He is also a highly regarded expert on sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and has regularly appeared as a legal analyst on various Fox News shows, Good Morning America, and other local and national media outlets. For the first time, Claypool tells his personal story of abuse and how that has fueled his mission to protect and defend children. In this inspiring story, Claypool bravely shares his own trauma, giving insight into what can happen when we don’t speak out, how abuse can affect victims for a lifetime, and how we can collectively break the pervasive code of silence. Along the way, he details five blockbuster cases he worked on and won for kids, including that of Anthony Avalos, a topic in the Netflix series The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Claypool provides important red flags—developed from his own years of experience in court analyzing child predators—for identifying trouble and safeguarding children. It’s time to end this power dynamic and give a voice to children and those who seek to protect them. This eye-opening, crucial must-read will empower anyone who wants to advocate for children and is courageous enough to defend them. 

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Book SynopsisTake an exciting journey with professional stuntwoman, Diane Peterson, into the amazing world of action stunts, adventure, joy, heartbreak, injury, death, and her uncanny desire to overcome her fears and follow her dreams. Diane has been a professional stuntwoman for over forty years. She has worked on over two hundred movies and television shows including Titanic, Laundromat, Green Hornet, Batman Forever, Marked for Death, Out for Justice, Robocop II, Airplane, and many, many others. Television shows she has worked on include Walker, Texas Ranger, Fall Guy, Mac- Gyver, Magnum P.I., and many others. Diane has film credits as double for: Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Heather Locklear, Heather Thomas, Farrah Fawcett, Michele Pfeiffer, Kate Capshaw, and hundreds of other actresses. Diane encourages all to overcome your fears and follow your dreams! Sit back and enjoy the ride! 

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Book Synopsis“Delightful.” —Town & Country • “Extraordinary...Tomlinson’s book is a gem.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) • “Moving...Really broke me.” —The Washington Post • “This book wants to lick your face. Let it.” —Kirkus Reviews Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson explores the bond between dogs and their people in this irresistibly appealing, inside account of the Westminster Dog Show that follows one dog on his quest to become a champion.Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the longtime relationship between dogs and humans, and here, in Dog

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Book SynopsisIlana Estelle grew up not knowing she had been born with cerebral palsy, and it took forty-six years for her to find out. With work on herself, from the point of her cerebral palsy diagnosis, it would go on to take her until her fifties, to get her autism diagnosis. Ilana's journey from angry, confused child to the 'real' her took enormous inner strength and courage. Then the global pandemic struck. In The Covid Years: A Story, Ilana shares her overwhelming physical and mental struggles within the chaos of the pandemic. Navigating the daily turbulence and ever-changing rules and restrictions, Ilana explains how these things jarred with her physical, mental, and emotional needs leaving her constantly out of control and panicked. Locked down and frightened for her life, Ilana turned once again to writing, a process that helped her cope and reach out beyond life, within her 'four walls'. The Covid Years shows how one woman learned to deal with stress, anxiety, and on-going self-isolation through introspection and the healing power of words, and a determination to reconnect to the outside world. A must-read for anyone wanting to shed light on their own personal journey through Covid-19. AUTHOR: Ilana's cerebral palsy diagnosis was hidden from her until the age of forty-six. That diagnosis was a lifechanging moment that allowed Ilana to look at her life experiences differently. Months after her diagnosis, she set up her website The CP Diary. Ilana spends her days writing and blogging about things that contribute to her health and wellbeing. She uses her experiences to write, bringing clarity into her life. She writes about health and wellbeing, advocating positivity, empathy and understanding through her blog, and across social media. Ilana who is passionate about the environment and is an animal advocate, lives with her husband in Yorkshire. When she is not writing, Ilana enjoys days out exploring the beautiful north Yorkshire countryside. This is her third book.

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Book Synopsis'Shadowman is an emotional and powerful read, deeply honest and very personal, and at times made bearable only by Johnny Daukes' ability to find comedy in horrific circumstances. An astonishing piece of work' - David Quantick This is no ordinary autobiography. In 2003 Johnny Daukes acknowledged to himself and confessed to his younger brother that he had been sexually abused as a child. This was by a man in charge of a boys' club in Oxford, run by the Catholic organisation Opus Dei. In 1984 the abuser married their older sister and the couple went on to have ten children. In 1992 Johnny formed the band FIN and they released records, toured extensively and received a great deal of press and national airplay. He also went on to become a successful voice-over artist, screenwriter and director. Later in life Johnny came to realise that these projects – his lyrics, sketches and scripts – were in fact the documents, or records, of a life that had been corrupted. Shadowman is an extraordinary memoir about childhood abuse and one man's unwitting attempt to examine and understand the past through creativity and art. 'What a unique book Johnny Daukes' Shadowman is. On the surface it's memoir but at its heart it's a book that wrestles with big questions about pain, art, memory and love' - Mat Osman 'Johnny Daukes' compelling memoir navigates both darkness and exhilaration with intensity and painful candour but also joy and wit. This is a book that is often melancholy but never mawkish and at its heart is an affirming appetite for life.' - Stuart Maconie AUTHOR: Johnny Daukes is a writer, musician, film editor, voice artist. He was the singer/songwriter of 90s indie-band FIN, became a comedy writer with sketch shows on BBCR4 (Radio9 & The Scanner), BBC3TV (The Message) and voiced 16 series of C4's Eurotrash. He wrote and directed the 2011 feature film Acts of Godfrey (starring Simon Callow), released solo albums including Promise that was album of the week in The Sunday Times and Rough Trade. His sitcom Cracking Up ran for two series on BBCR4 and he has latterly cut feature films including Finding Your Feet, Fisherman's Friends and Settlers.

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Book SynopsisPlotting was the natural consequence of the isolation we were detained in,' wrote John Sarsfield Casey, a Fenian prisoner in Pentonville in 1866, facing deportation. The prisoners established lines of communication to keep connected to each other and to the outside world.Republicans constantly defied and resisted authority. They smuggled; they planned escapes; and they disseminated news and told their stories in a literature which was central to morale and the integrity of the struggle.In Captive Columns Eoghan Mac Cormaic looks at the literature of the republican press which saw the production of over sixty prison titlesoften handwritten or typed. From the pinpricked sheets of toilet paper in Pentonville to Bobby Sands' poetry, written on toilet paper and smuggled out to be published, this is an astonishing story which has never been examined in such detail before.

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Book SynopsisHow she managed a husband and two children is a mystery, although she acknowledges various helpers, always bringing them to life in fascinating detail. Many vignettes of people have been described in a manner not to be forgotten.

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Book SynopsisFrom Coco Chanel and Grace Kelly to Twiggy and Lady Diana, here are ten women who changed 20th-century fashion forever! Coco Chanel once proclaimed, "I don't do fashion, I am fashion," and in one line she established a mantra for a handful of women who revolutionised the concept of femininity in the mid-20th century. A Matter of Style documents the unforgettable lives of Chanel and nine other female icons of style and elegance who captivated entire generations and remain inspiring models of beauty and fascination. An extraordinary collection of photographs brings these women back to life: Coco Chanel, Katharine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Mary Quant, Twiggy, and Lady Diana. These are the stories of unparalleled lives, captured in a volume without precedent.

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Book SynopsisDelhi: A History is a historical portrait of a city whose past has reference in mythology and whose present is rooted in modernity. A city destroyed and populated by events of history, its journey has been unparalleled when compared with other ancient cities of the world.

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Book SynopsisSeattle, Washington, 1990. It was a cold February day when eight-year-old Jennifer Pinky'' Francis stepped on the American soil for the first time,ittle knowing that herife was to change forever. Her Indian passport contained noast name. Unbeknown to her poor and illiterate parents, she had been illegally trafficked into the US under the garb of adoption by the very people who had been entrusted with her care. What ensues for Jennifer from then on isife in a foreignand where she is thrust into the nightmarish world of foster care, sexual abuse, drugs and crime. But, her heartbreaking story does not end there. Two decades after her so-called adoption, Jennifer is deported to India with no money or contacts. She must start at the very bottom again, building up herife one tiny step at a time. Indeed, Jennifer is not only a representation of the millions of illegal inter-country adoptees, but also a representation of human suffering. Nandita Puri''s brilliant book is an utterly gut-wrenching and unforgettable story of courage and survival.

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Book SynopsisIt''s a promise India''s most beloved writer delivers on in her irreverent memoir about the year leading up to her landmark seventy-fifth birthday. Quintessential exuberance and keen observations firmly in place, she tells us about travelling solo, feasting (and fasting) with family and friends, the triumphs and losses that accompany ageing, the vagaries and vulnerabilities of being a writer and, above all, how food connects people in the most unexpected places and delightful ways. From where to find the most delicious lassi in Jaipur, her obsession with kasundi and conversations with a Nobel Laureate who is a gourmet to M.F. Husain''s last food khwaish and what''s served at Aamir Khan''s dinner table, Shobhaa takes us into the dining rooms of politicians, artists and celebrities, to festivals and parties and other social events, and, more privately, into her home, where food is always the prime subject of conversation.

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