Family Style

There is something about the boy. When he is angry, clouds darken. When he cries, rivers burst their banks. And when he touches a basketball, deities want courtside seats. Half Nigerian mortal, half Grecian god: Demi is the Half-God of Rainfall. His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows that gods are just like men: the same fragile egos, the same subsequent fury, the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals. The gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and their prayers to Demi.

Traditional fairytales are full of cliché and gender stereotypes. The silent Rapunzel, the beautiful sweet princesses, ugly, jealous and bitter women, girls that need rescuing, men who take the glory and their new brides being forever grateful and subservient. Good mothers, obliging lovers and pretty objects. Nikita Gill's new prose and poetry collection rewrites the fairytale classics and reworks their old-fashioned tropes into new empowering and inspirational stories.

Una princesa llamada Elizabeth nació con la proverbial cuchara de plata en la boca. Su familia esperaba que un día se casara con un príncipe rico y guapo, y que todos vivieran felices para siempre. Pero, en cambio...su hermano Samuel se convirtió en uno de los más grandes hombres de poder e influencia en la historia de Hollywood, y Elizabeth recibió un disparo en la cabeza de manos de su sobrino en la boda de su sobrina, y se encontró a sí misma a medio camino del cielo con un ángel llamado Oleo, quien podría ayudar a la Princesa a cambiar su destino.

Raise a glass, and sample what's been cooked up in this A Crock of Sundries, Volume One. A pinch of family traditions. A dash of the teenage years. Toss in a few alcohol-infused musings. Top it off with a bit of cheeky satire, and some pensive prose and poetry for a fun literary romp through genres. This single-author, multi-genre anthology by Timothy R. Baldwin is sure to have a bit of something for everyone. So kick back in your favorite reading spot, pour yourself a drink, and settle in for an evening of diverse entertainment.

An acclaimed poet deepens her exploration of the domestic in a new collection of playful and wise poems The poems in Carrie Fountain’s third collection, The Life, exist somewhere, as Rilke says, between “our daily life” and “the great work” - an interstitial space where sidelong glances live alongside shouts to heaven. In elegant yet colloquial language, Fountain observes her children dressing themselves in fledgling layers of personhood, creating their own private worlds and personalities, and makes room for genuine marvels amid routine.

Trini: My Life of Poems is a story of determination, courage, and unyielding faith. Each poem is a chapter in a life filled with a single mom's struggles and perseverance. Breathe in each line, and share those experiences, viewing them through the windows of her eyes.

Lloyd Jones was seven years old the first time he climbed high into a grandstand to watch rugby with his father. The experience was baptismal. From his new elevated perspective Jones believed he could see everything that mattered – a field of play that rolled out, green with promise, from suburban New Zealand to the wider world. The grandstand is a guiding metaphor for these questing narrative poems that reach back into childhood and forward into the life of a writer constantly experimenting with form and voice.

Between three sections of Basquiat-inspired vignettes, Tartarus offers the listener an unflinching look into Chapman’s emerging understanding of his relationship to Black masculinity through familial ties, the oscillation between nihilism and hope, and the ever present tensions felt moving through a state which sees the existence of your body as an inherent danger.

A lively and imaginative debut, Neoteny explores blindness, family, and birdsong. In these poems, Emily K. Michael meditates on literary and personal heroes like Jo March, her beloved grandmother, and her guide dog. This collection is rich with treasures from childhood - the honey-colored piano Michael played, the fig tree in her front yard, and the trays of fresh mint drying on her grandmother's table.

Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book Award-winner Hasan Namir shares a joyful collection about parenting, fatherhood and hope. These warm free-verse poems document the journey that he and his husband took to have a child. Between love letters to their young son, Namir shares insight into his love story with his husband, the complexities of the IVF surrogacy process and the first year as a family of three. Umbilical Cord is a heartfelt book for parents or would-be parents, with a universal message of hope.

These are 26 new poems by Maggie Hess muse over mud puddles, rhyme in poetry, and eyebrows.

In Orion's Hands is an evocative collection of poems by Miranda Levi that delves deep into the human experience, touching on themes of love, trauma, self-discovery, and the power of the universe. With a raw and unfiltered voice, Levi invites listeners to explore the intimate corners of her heart and mind, weaving a narrative that is both deeply personal and universally relatable.

Borderline Fortune is a meditation on intangible family inheritance - of unresolved intergenerational conflicts and traumas in particular - set against the backdrop of our planetary inheritance as humans. As species go extinct and glaciers melt, Teresa K. Miller asks what we owe one another and what it means to echo one’s ancestors’ grief and fear. Drawing on her family history, Miller seeks to awaken from the intergenerational trance and bear witness to our current moment with clarity and attention.

"ECHOES OF GREATNESS: Poems By Justice Ajani" invites listeners into a world where poetry becomes a bridge between generations, passions, and profound reflections. Inspired by a lineage steeped in activism, spirituality, and artistic expression, Justice Ajani's verses resonate with the echoes of his ancestors and the vibrancy of his own voice.

Sometimes in your life, you meet someone special that changes everything you thought you knew about love. They may be younger or older from different religions or races. It does not matter how, why, or when. They bring a smile to your face when you had none before lighting up the darkness that you're living in. Your heart will race and your mind opens up to the distinct possibilities of anything you may have wished for or dreamed of.

The Silver Lining of Tomorrow is a collaboration of poems and tidbits for all the Daddy’s girls out there. Traci Mahrt lost her father Melvin at the early age of 24. With a collection of poems found after his passing, Traci weaves in her own poems and shares her own life experiences with love, depression, and finding God.

Poetic Perspectives brings to parchment two decades of this author's finest poetry. Deemed the Thomas Kinkade of poetry, Wolfe pens to paper words, thoughts, ponderings, history, personal experiences, patriotism, love, and loss. He clearly expresses delight in his rhyming verse and subject matter. You will experience his artistic vision and be amazed at the brushstrokes provided by his mental mastery of life's precious moments. He will capture you and hold you in his grasp, bringing forth a tear, a smile, a deeper thought, and an awakening to some of the more important things in life.

"How can I teach a prayer / I only know how to recite?" "America, whose death / didn't you come from?" These are some of the questions that poet Joshua Gottlieb-Miller wrestles with in his beautiful, gripping new collection. By turns experimental and documentary, Dybbuk Americana draws out the questions around Jewish identity in the United States, and what it means to pass on Jewish identity to one's child. This hybrid text draws on art, mysticism, and history, taking the dybbuk, a figure from Jewish folklore, as its central metaphor.

This collection of poems by Jim Forbes is a rare rendering that will invite you to keep listening. Heartbreak from a failed marriage and separation from his beloved daughters both brought this poet to write during his darkest times.

This book is a collaboration of poetry and thoughts composed by both authors. That which is within deals with the many aspects of everyday life such as family and friends, the battles we face daily, and the fondness we hold for those we love and cherish. It will also give a new perspective on life and a hope that even when things are so tough that we think we cannot stand the pressure of time, there is a greater force (whatever it may be) at work in your corner.