"In Writers: 13 Vignettes, great American storyteller Barry Gifford paints portraits of famous writers caught in imaginary vulnerable moments in their lives. In prose that is funny, grotesque, and a touch brutal, Gifford shows these writers at their most human, which is to say at their worst: they are liars, frauds, lousy lovers, and drunks. This is a world in which Emily Dickinson remains an unpublished poet, Ernest Hemingway drunkenly sets explosive...

"A collection of essential poems, essays, letters, songs, and photographs which aims to introduce new readers to the scope of Allen Ginsberg's work in its prolific and profound diversity"-- "One of the Beat Generation's most renowned poets and writers, Allen Ginsberg became internationally famous not only for his published works but also for his actions as a human rights activist who championed the sexual revolution, gay liberation, Buddhism and...

"A collection of all of the poet Mark Strand's previously published poems"--

Despite the misleading subtitle of this impressive if uneven anthology, smut is not Nerve's specialty. The 35 pieces reprinted here from the year-old, sex-obsessed webzine range from an article by Meredith F. Small on the habits of the Congolese bonobo ape to Debra Boxer's memoir of a 28-year-old virgin and Jocelyn Elders's arguments in favor of masturbation. This said, if Nerve can establish a lasting specialty, it will probably not be reportage,...

A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women—two sisters and their mother—in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge.

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

Ford reinvents Bascombe in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. In four richly luminous narratives, Bascombe attempts to reconcile, interpret and console a world undone by calamity. It is a moving and wondrous and extremely funny odyssey through the America people live in at this moment.

In 1855, Walt Whitman published — at his own expense — the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a visionary volume of twelve poems. Showing the influence of a uniquely American form of mysticism known as Transcendentalism, which eschewed the general society and culture of the time, the writing is distinguished by an explosively innovative free verse style and previously unmentionable subject matter. Exalting nature, celebrating the human body, and...

In her thrilling new book, Lauren Groff brings the reader into a physical world that is at once domestic and wild-a place where the hazards of the natural world lie waiting to pounce, yet the greatest threats and mysteries are still of an emotional, psychological nature. A family retreat can be derailed by a prowling panther, or by a sexual secret. Among those navigating this place are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up;...

A dictatorship called Big Brother rules the people in a collectivist society where Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth. Winston joins the underground where he becomes involved in a forbidden love affair.