All of the stories in The Gandy Dancer are touching and surprising, O'Henry twists to Jack London yarns. This delightful collection, full of beautiful imagery of land and skies and people, are stories of the USA told by an American girl, raised coast to coast, and north to south, who took off on her own at 17 to see what's up. There's persistent virtue to each adventure, triumph over adversity, as they reach heart and soul for a rare look at the lives of strangers and the paths they picked up for themselves. The classic independent spirit of the American adventurer is captured in each original tale, and the everlasting joy of charting new territory. Has anything, Sparhawk asks, got more punch to it than a road map? "Your book is very handsomely put together, and you write in a lively and engaging way." Larry P. Arnn, President Hillsdale College, Michigan, USA From the Monterey Herald, March 8, 2004, Page One, Section B, Five column story and photograph Author Draws from Rich Life "Sparhawk's life has been a coast to coast odyssey of day jobs, art and writing... she's worked as a radio producer and press secretary to onetime Vice Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro, network news writer, newspaper reporter, painter and sculptor. 'I like doing things that are a challenge, ' she said."

An illustrated collection of folk songs from the industrial revolution.

PrologueAt a young age his life revolved around the next paycheck and nights at the local tavern. After three years he knew the mind numbing factory work, was but a slow death drowning in drudgery. The excitement of adulthood had long ago lost its luster. The endless cycle that he had fallen into with only a high school education he saw no favorable escape from. Traversing the highway of life between youth and responsibly there are unexpected bends and turns and even detours along the way. Decisions made, both good and not so favorable, affect each each leg of our journey. Late on a Friday night, in a smoke filled tavern, a seed was planted that would forever change a life. Full of a nights worth of drinking an old railroad employee steadied himself against the bar and said in a gruff voice, "If you want a real job be in Newton at 7:00 a.m. and I don't mean 7:01 either." Those few words were about to change a life. On April 20, 1970 a kid climbed on board this train. This is a collection of memories over thirty-seven plus years. It is the life of a kid who became a man during this journey. I am that kid and this is my story.

Aisha Sharif's debut collection is an exploration in belonging--to a family, to a community, to a faith. In poems that navigate the boundaries of these different types of belonging, Sharif examines both what is lost and what is gained. Praise for To Keep From Undressing Muslim narratives, bodies, and lineages don't just matter; they make up the American fabric, both historic and contemporary, and woven within that fabric is a tradition rooted in the same ideals and morals and complications as all other American narratives. Sharif's poems deconstruct the hijab not for metaphoric purposes, or to serve as a simplified how-to manual for the unlearned. The hijab becomes a directional marker into the poet herself, wondering "how to truly unwrap myself." And what we find is the good work of poetry: desire, regret, mis-spoken languages, vulnerabilities. --F. Douglas Brown, author of ICON, and Zero to Three, winner of 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize To Keep from Undressing, Aisha Sharif's timely debut collection, reveals the type of honesty that gets you uninvited to family reunions. Sharif requires honesty, not only of those she speaks of in her poems, but also of herself. The undressing comes from the wrestling with the truth of the discomfort but also the beauty of what we now call intersectionality but what has been long known as being a black woman in America-- a folding and unfolding, a combination of internalized faith, motherhood, men, family and unshakable identity. --Natasha Ria El-Scari, author of The Only Other In nature, the greatest richness appears at the edges between habitat zones--between meadow and forest, oasis and desert, sea and shore. The same can be true of poetry that explores the edges between seemingly disparate realms or rival qualities, as in this fine collection by Aisha Sharif. She speaks in these poems of how it feels to be both Muslim and black, faithful and doubting, obedient and rebellious. --Scott Russell Sanders, author of Earth Works From the intersection of Black culture and religion, to conversations with jinn, to motherhood, marriage and the meaning of hijab, To Keep From Undressing beautifully melds private and public, interweaving bold and delicate themes into a one-of-kind tapestry of words and freeing truths. The reading experience is just as therapeutic to the reader as the writing was for the writer. That is the mark of pure magic. --Nadirah Angail author of On All Things That Make Me Beautiful and What We Learned Along the Way

This Angel on My Chest is a collection of unconventionally linked stories, each about a different young woman whose husband dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Ranging from traditional stories to lists, a quiz, a YouTube link, and even a lecture about creative writing, the stories grasp to put into words the ways in which we all cope with unspeakable loss. Based on the author's own experience of losing her husband at age thirty-seven, this book explores the resulting grief, fury, and bewilderment, mirroring the obsessive nature of grieving. The stories examine the universal issues we face at a time of loss, as well as the specific concerns of a young widow: support groups, in-laws, insurance money, dating, and remarriage. This Angel on My Chest ultimately asks, how is it possible to move forward with life while "till death do you part" rings in your ears—and, how is it possible not to?

John McGlinchey, a young Irish transplant from County Donegal finds little opportunity in South Philadelphia during Reconstruction era America. His war time savings nearly depleted, he is determined to find work and joins hundreds of his countrymen in one of the greatest engineering quests of the time, building the Trans-Continental Railroad. McGlinchey provides a first person narrative of the events he encounters that overturn many of his contemporary views of race and religion while at the same time providing an unvarnished view of people great and small that shaped this grand endeavor.

“Gautier writes with exhilarating insight and confidence about the lives of teenagers . . . at risk from themselves, their families and their friends.”—Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author In Amina Gautier’s Brooklyn, some kids make it and some kids don’t, but not in simple ways or for stereotypical reasons. Gautier’s stories explore the lives of young African Americans who might all be classified as “at-risk,” yet who encounter different opportunities and dangers in their particular neighborhoods and schools and who see life through the lens of different family experiences. Gautier’s focus is on quiet daily moments, even in extraordinary lives; her characters do not stand as emblems of a subculture but live and breathe as people. In “The Ease of Living,” the young teen Jason is sent down south to spend the summer with his grandfather after witnessing the double murder of his two best friends, and he is not happy about it. In “Pan Is Dead,” two half-siblings watch as the heroin-addicted father of the older one works his way back into their mother’s life; in “Dance for Me,” a girl on scholarship at a posh Manhattan school teaches white girls to dance in the bathroom in order to be invited to a party. As teenagers in complicated circumstances, each of Gautier’s characters is pushed in many directions. To succeed may entail unforgiveable compro­mises, and to follow their desires may lead to catastrophe. Yet within these stories they exist and can be seen as they are, in the moment of choosing. “Despite its title, this is not a debut composed of rapid shocks and dangers, but a quieter accumulation of heartbreaking pressures.”—Foreword Reviews

On a blissfully bright day, Joshua decides to fly his cardboard box down Oak Tree Hill. Unfortunately, his attempts all end in failure. Joshua experiences many emotions. Suddenly, a new kid shows up. Will Pip have the answer Joshua needs to make his cardboard box fly?

Relates how one boy--who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before--became a monster capable of entering his high school with a loaded gun and firing on his classmates, as told from the viewpoints of several victims. Each perspective is written by a different writer of young adult fiction.