“These are meditative poems that seem to rise from a long and deep looking at life, in its most ordinary and familiar moments. They invite us into the gaze, suggesting how the surfaces of things might reveal stronger truths for those who know to wait and wonder. These pages call us to consider our lives as ‘lent by the mystery and borrowed back,’ as the poet puts it, showing us what yearning might require—and yield.” —Mark S. Burrows, Editor for Paraclete Poetry With the publication of this title, Paraclete Press announces the first winner of the Phyllis Tickle Prize in Poetry which honors our longtime friend and advisor.

“These are meditative poems that seem to rise from a long and deep looking at life, in its most ordinary and familiar moments. They invite us into the gaze, suggesting how the surfaces of things might reveal stronger truths for those who know to wait and wonder. These pages call us to consider our lives as ‘lent by the mystery and borrowed back,’ as the poet puts it, showing us what yearning might require—and yield.” —Mark S. Burrows, Editor for Paraclete Poetry With the publication of this title, Paraclete Press announces the first winner of the Phyllis Tickle Prize in Poetry which honors our longtime friend and advisor.

How long does it take for scars to heal? How long does it take for a scarred memory to fester and rise to the surface? For Marubini, the question is whether scars ever heal when you forget they are there to begin with. Marubini is a young woman who has an enviable life in Cape Town, working at a wine farm and spending idyllic days with her friends ... until her past starts spilling into her present. Something dark has been lurking in the shadows of Marubini's life from as far back as she can remember. It's only a matter of time before it reaches out and grabs at her. The Yearning is a memorable exploration of the ripple effects of the past, of personal strength and courage, and of the shadowy intersections of traditional and modern worlds.

"Irwin Kula shows us how to to live our humanness -- the pleasures and the challenges, the messiness and the triumphs -- with a profound acceptance of our desires and foibles and a joy that can only come from understanding." --Deepak Chopra "Yearning. After twenty-three years as a rabbi, I can think of no more defining human experience." Life can be messy and imperfect. We're all looking for answers. And yet, as renowned rabbi Irwin Kula points out, the yearning for answers is no different now than it was in the times that gave rise to Moses, Buddha, and Jesus. Far from being a burden, however, these yearnings can themselves become a path to blessing, prompting questions and insights, resulting in new ways of being and believing. In this, his first book, Rabbi Kula takes us on an excursion into the depths of our desires, applying ancient Jewish tradition to seven of our most wonderful yearnings. Merging ancient wisdom with contemporary insights, Rabbi Kula shows how traditional practices can inform and enrich our own search for meaning. More importantly, he invites us to embrace the messiness and complexities of the human experience in order to fully embrace the endless and glorious project of life.

Does God want us fulfilled? Popular psychology says we should be fulfilled. Advertisements tease us with dozens of ways we can be fulfilled. Many preachers and book promise Christian fulfillment. But in this surprising (and surprisingly liberating) book, Craig Barnes suggests we weren't created to be whole or complete. With a fresh reading of the early chapters of Genesis, he says that much of our pain and disillusionment arises from wrong expectations of the gospel and of life. Echoing comedian Bob Newhart, Barnes "would like to make a motion that we face reality." He candidly draws from his own experience as a son, a student, a husband, a father and a pastor to help us see what we all know but are so reluctant to say aloud--that biblical living will not save us from crises or unfulfillment. Barnes writes for anyone who knows that faith must be tough enough to "hold up in the emergency rooms of life." But he doesn't merely help us face reality. He helps us see how our needs and limitations are gifts, the best opportunities we have to receive God's grace. Because of that, Yearning may be the most honest and the most helpful book you'll read this year.

One of the first books of its kind addressing how young adults are living in an intentional community in the Episcopal Church. Young adults (18-30) are searching for a church that demands their involvement, whether it is in mission, worship, theology, or daily life. They want a church that is relevant and offers a vision of the Divine. This book places the church in context with consumerism, freedom of choice, war and terror, and the impact of technology now dominating the worldview of young adults. Drawing upon the proven success at St. Hilda s House in New Haven, CT, this book provides stories and narratives from young adult interns, who are involved in its mission and ministry."

The poems in Manuel Paul López's The Yearning Feed, winner of the 2013 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, are embedded in the San Diego/Imperial Valley regions, communities located along the U.S.-Mexico border. López, an Imperial Valley native, considers La Frontera, or the border, as magical, worthy of Macondo-like comparisons, where contradictions are firmly rooted and ironies play out on a daily basis. These poems synthesize López’s knowledge of modern and contemporary literature with a border-child vernacular sensibility to produce a work that illustrates the ongoing geographical and literary historical clash of cultures. With humor and lyrical intensity, López addresses familial relationships, immigration, substance abuse, violence, and, most importantly, the affirmation of life. In the poem titled "Psalm," the speaker experiences a deep yearning to relearn his family's Spanish tongue, a language lost somewhere in the twelve-mile stretch between his family's home, his school, and the border. The poem “1984” borrows the prose-poetics of Joe Brainard, who was known for his collage and assemblage work of the 1960s and 1970s, to describe the poet’s bicultural upbringing in the mid-1980s. Many of the poems in The Yearning Feed use a variety of media, techniques, and cultural signifiers to create a hybrid visual language that melds “high” art with "low." The poems in The Yearning Feed establish López as a singular and revelatory voice in American poetry, one who challenges popular perceptions of the border region and uses the unique elements of the rich border experience to inform and guide his aesthetics.

Praise for Yearning! "Sally Cisney Mann tells a powerful, moving, and unforgettable story of tragedy and hope, loss and love, suffering and triumph. Hers is a life shaped by sweeping events - economic and social dislocation from the Great Depression, World War II, and the war in Southeast Asia. All students of 'war and the family' should read this work, as well as those interested in the social history of women in America and in how we construct our individual identities when the world seems unwilling to cooperate. Her truly remarkable account, at once personal and universal, details her quest for stability - and for family. Readers will shed tears at all she endured, and they'll be 'in her corner' as she struggles to prevail over heartache." - Donald J. Mrozek Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Kansas State University Author of Air Power and the Ground War in Vietnam

Pragmatic and applicable, this is a must-read that teaches you how to find your own answers by asking the right questions. The Lord wants more than blind faith--He invites us to ask, seek, and learn for ourselves. Build your testimony through questioning with this penetrating philosophical look at the doctrinal insights that are available to those seeking their divine destiny.

“Rejoice, readers, as you receive the generosity of Luci Shaw's 76 new grace-infused parable poems. Autobiography once more merges with theology as these poems illuminate in splendored natural detail how the seasons of creation parallel and explain the seasons of her life as a poet. Again and again, these poems shower us with glorious epiphanies from the natural world as it reflects God's generosity at work such as “spring's impossible news of green.” These poems confirm that in poetry as in faith “ripeness is all.” Like Wordsworth, Luci is celebrated for being a highly gifted landscape poet whose works are rich in imagery from the physical world—meadows filled with seeds, flowers, and also poems which are like "shoots" in Luci's writing life. Animals, too, great and small (beetles, cricket, and voles to bears and whales) play a major role in Luci's poetics of creation; God is likened to a great bear who leaves paw tracks for us to follow. In their deep faith and vibrant colors and designs, the poems in Generosity might be considered Luci's Book of Kells. We need to be like Luci's father who carried her poems in his briefcase to show his friends.” —Philip C. Kolin, Author, Reaching Forever: Poems; Distinguished Professor of English (Emeritus), University of Southern Mississippi