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This collection of poems begins with the Sonoran Desert, a return to personal and social histories. Poems crisscross the desert to bear witness to the live repercussions of past and contemporary events, from Bisbee, Arizona, in 1917 to the border country one hundred years later. The vision widens to chart a contemplative orientation between the desert as a place of refuge and beauty, and the desert, in Thomas Merton's words, as "the country of madness." The elegiac spirit that runs through the collection is the same one that searches for tenors of human connection and solidarity. Children play a central role in this project. Traveling far beyond the southwest, from Olaszfalu, Hungary, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, histories and communities are experienced as interspersing realities. Poems seek to be responsive to and responsible for memory in its many iterations, including the birth of language itself, so that the meaning of home ground can be revealed. In this way, the desert is both a geographic place as well as an interior, more expansive, and difficult to define terrain, a literal and figurative desert.
When History Is Personal contains the stories of twenty-five moments in Mimi Schwartz’s life, each heightened by its connection to historical, political, and social issues. These essays look both inward and outward so that these individualized tales tell a larger story—of assimilation, the women’s movement, racism, anti-Semitism, end-of-life issues, ethics in writing, digital and corporate challenges, and courtroom justice. A shrewd and discerning storyteller, Schwartz captures history from her vantage as a child of German-Jewish immigrants, a wife of over fifty years, a breast cancer survivor, a working mother, a traveler, a tennis player, a daughter, and a widow. In adding her personal story to the larger narrative of history, culture, and politics, Schwartz invites readers to consider her personal take alongside “official” histories and offers readers fresh assessments of our collective past.
"This three-part book is a series of award-winning memoirs that gives voice to writers with ongoing disabilities, those who have overcome their disabilities, and from those dealing with another's disability"--Jacket.
"An anthology of work from more than 150 poets, judiciously selected from The Frost Place, a sanctuary for poets and poetry. The collected poems honor Robert Frost, himself a lifelong teacher of poetry who encouraged the creative visions of young students, and Donald Sheehan, who has nurtured the legacy of the Frost Place. An original, eye-opening lyrical compendium, flourishing with the brilliance of creative work." --Midwest Book Review
Blessed Events explores how women who give birth at home use religion to make sense of their births and in turn draw on their birthing experiences to bring meaning to their lives and families. Pamela Klassen introduces a surprisingly diverse group of women, in their own words, while also setting their birth stories within wider social, political, and economic contexts. In doing so, she emerges with a study that disrupts conventional views of both childbirth and religion by blurring assumed divisions between conservative and feminist women and by taking childbirth seriously as a religious act. Most American women who have a choice give birth in a hospital and request pain medication. Yet enou...