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Between Camelots is about the struggle to forge relationships and the spaces that are left when that effort falls short. The stories are not only about loss and fear, but also about the courage that drives us all to continue to reach out to the people around us. Winner of the 2005 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Outstanding Achievement Award from Wisconsin Library Association, and the New Writers Award from Great Lakes College Association.
The Artist's Torah is an uplifting and down-to-earth guide to the creative process, wide open to longtime artists and first-time dabblers, to people of every religious background--or none--and to every creative medium. In this book, you'll find a yearlong cycle of weekly meditations on a life lived artistically, grounded in ancient Jewish wisdom and the wisdom of artists, composers, writers, and choreographers from the past and present. You'll explore the nature of the creative process--how it begins, what it's for, what it asks of you, how you work your way to truth and meaning, what you do when you get blocked, what you do when you're done--and encounter questions that will help you apply the meditations to your own life and work. Above all, The Artist's Torah teaches us that creativity is a natural and important part of the human spirit, a bright spark that, week after week, this book will brighten.
"The arrival of a child throws the various characters in Into the Wilderness into confusion. With delicacy and generosity, David Ebenbach follows as they try to find their uncertain ways, discovering that, whatever their ages, some reach parenthood before they're ready to tackle adulthood" - Stewart O'Nan
What happens when your dream mission to Mars is a reality TV nightmare? "Ebenbach is more at home in the minefield of ambiguity than most of us are in our houses." ―Roy Kesey, author of Any Deadly Thing For the six lucky scientists selected by the Destination Mars! corporation, a one-way ticket to Mars--in exchange for a lifetime of research--was an absolute no-brainer. The incredible opportunity was clearly worth even the most absurdly tedious screening process. Perhaps worth following the odd protocols in a nonsensical handbook written by an eccentric billionaire. Possibly even worth the constant surveillance, which is carefully edited into a TV ratings bonanza on Earth. But it turns out that after a while even scientists can get bored of science. Tempers begin to fray; unsanctioned affairs blossom. When perfectly good equipment begins to fail, the Marsonauts are faced with a possibility that technology simply cannot explain. Irreverent, poignant, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach's debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible outing you will never forget.
EXCERPT There was one guy we didn't invite to the orgy. We invited everyone else: Solaire because she's crazy and John and Walt because they're both so good--looking and they're dating anyway, and we invited Amy because everybody just loves Amy. We even invited Miranda just because she's the jealous type, and since her sister was in town we threw the door open to her sister, too. But there was this one guy we didn't invite. The stories in The Guy We Didn't Invite to the Orgy--funny, surprising, compassionate, true to life--are about people navigating the trickiest of landscapes: a world full of other people. Each of these characters wants to know, in her or his own way, given the crazy ups and downs and ins and outs of relationships, is it better to go it alone, or is it better to try to carve out a place for yourself, whatever it takes?
After years of medicated struggle, 34-year-old Zoe quits her office job and moves into a trailer with her boyfriend in rural Maine against her family's wishes and her doctor's advice. After all, she has big plans with Gordy, a goateed vegetarian with thoughtful eyes and a job at a yoga studio and, as it turns out, an unfortunate desire to always be in control. But when a late-night argument turns violent, Zoe runs away in search of a mystical beach house she recalls from childhood, only to discover that in order to find it, she must reckon with her past. In electric prose that burns with wit and intelligence, Miss Portland explores what it means to give up everything in order to recover who you are.
Poetry. This is the first full-length collection by Pattie McCarthy who co-founded and edits BeautifulSwimmer Press. "Playing inventive variations on the medieval book of hours, this marvelous collection swarms with vividly open language that suddenly gathers to moments of startling clarity. This is simply a gorgeous book --Cole Swensen. "Pattie McCarthy commands attention for her elegant sensibility, her intellectual acuity, and her discerning creation of a poetic language adequate to the complex pressures and insights she meticulously illuminates" --Rachel Blau DuPlessis. McCarthy's chapbook CHORAGUS is also available from SPD.
In this astonishing debut, Tracy Winn poignantly chronicles the souls who inhabit the troubled mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, playing out their struggles and hopes over the course of the twentieth century. Through a stunning variety of voices, Winn paints a deep and permeating portrait of the town and its people: a young millworker who dreams of marrying rich and becoming “Mrs. Somebody Somebody”; an undercover union organizer whose privileged past shapes her cause; a Korean War veteran who returns to the wife he never really got to know—and the couple’s overindulged children, who grow up to act out against their parents; a town resident who reflects on a long-lost love and the treasure he keeps close to his heart. Winn’s keen insight into class and human nature, combined with her perfect, nuanced prose, make Mrs. Somebody Somebody truly shine.
Published 11 years after the author's death, this classic of utopian fiction tells the story of American consul John Lang. He visits the isolated and alien country of Islandia and is soon seduced by the ways of a compelling and fascinating world.
Edwer Thissell is having trouble adjusting to life on the planet Sirene. The Sirenese all wear masks to indicate their social status. They also communicate by playing instruments that are carefully selected for any social situation. (To make matters worse, errors of musical etiquette often prove fatal.) Shortly after Thissell arrives on Sirene, he finds himself embroiled in an unsolved murder made all the more mysterious by the fact that since everyone must always wear a mask, you can never be sure who you are dealing with.