Literary Nonfiction. African & African American Studies. Latino/Latina Studies. Winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association "Discover" Award for Creative Nonfiction. HOOK: A MEMOIR is a gripping story of transformation. Without excuse or indulgence, author and educator Randall Horton explores his downward spiral from unassuming Howard University undergraduate to homeless drug addict, international cocaine smuggler, and incarcerated felon--before showing us the redemptive role that writing and literature played in helping him reclaim his life. The multilayered narrative bridges past and present through both the vivid portrayal of Horton's singular experiences and his correspondence in letters with the anonymous Lxxxx, a Latina woman awaiting trial. HOOK explores race and social construction in America, the forgotten lives within the prison industrial complex, and the resilience of the human spirit.

2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist 2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction) Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated) Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life—and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.

When Rose Sherman Williams was just twelve years old, the Nazis invaded her hometown in Poland. Subject to the ravages of World War II and the dehumanization of Polish Jews by the Nazis, each day was a fight for survival. Now in her nineties, this remarkable woman continues to share her story in hopes that it inspires courage and resilience, and touches the lives of those who hear it.Letters to Rose goes beyond the conventional Holocaust memoir. The book evidences her impact on the next generation by incorporating their letters throughout the text. These letters, coupled with Rose's story set in its historical context, provide a memorable read for all ages.

In the late sixties when the Beatles are top of the charts and Twiggy is hitting the catwalk, Gill embarks on a life-changing journey to Hong Kong. Mao’s revolution is at its height. Vietnam has become America’s longest war with no end in sight. But it’s at an ad agency under insane direction where Gill finds her battles and learns to stand her ground. In this spirited memoir, where Mad Men meets Han Suyin’s A Many-Splendoured Thing, Gill recreates a Hong Kong of the imagination. Attractive and naïve, wined and dined by Hong Kong’s elite, she gravitates towards camaraderie outside the world of advertising and money, and adventure follows. A weekend sail goes awry when a yacht with her on board strays into the waters of Communist China. A full-scale sea and air search mounted from Hong Kong can find no trace. Yet Gill is very much alive. With her friends, she is reciting from Mao’s Little Red Book with no idea what fate awaits her or how long she will be held. The Hong Kong Letters is part memoir, part travelogue. Gill introduces us to characters that fiction couldn’t have invented any better and transports the reader to another time and place, a reminder that anyone can fit the experiences of a lifetime into two short years.

In Letters to a Young Madman, a man of genius, of uncanny writing ability, and of profound empathy for the mentally ill, recounts his “spectacular plunge from competency into official madness.” Paul Gruchow’s account of the mental illness, which eventually claimed his life, explores the double injury inflicted on the mentally ill. First, there is the illness itself, with its often debilitating symptoms. But then there is the more insidious injury made by society, stigmatization: “We no longer believe, as we did 250 years ago, that the mentally ill are animals, but we are not ready to grant that they are fully human, either.” In a voice remarkably clear, eloquent, and calm, Gruchow shows us why he came to regard the mentally ill as “his heroes.”

A lifetime of candid reflections from physicist Freeman Dyson, “an acute observer of personality and human foibles” (New York Times Book Review). Written between 1940 and the late 1970s, the postwar recollections of renowned physicist Freeman Dyson have been celebrated as an historic portrait of modern science and its greatest players, including Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, and Hans Bethe. Chronicling the stories of those who were engaged in solving some of the most challenging quandaries of twentieth-century physics, Dyson lends acute insight and profound observations to a life’s work spent chasing what Einstein called those “deep mysteries that Nature intends to keep for herself.” Whether reflecting on the drama of World War II, the moral dilemmas of nuclear development, the challenges of the space program, or the demands of raising six children, Dyson’s annotated letters reveal the voice of one “more creative than almost anyone else of his generation” (Kip Thorne). An illuminating work in these trying times, Maker of Patterns is an eyewitness account of the scientific discoveries that define our modern age.

Ollie and Moritz are two teenagers who will never meet. Each of them lives with a life-affecting illness. Contact with electricity sends Ollie into debilitating seizures, while Moritz has a heart defect and is kept alive by an electronic pacemaker. If they did meet, Ollie would seize, but turning off the pacemaker would kill Moritz. Through an exchange of letters, the two boys develop a strong bond of friendship which becomes a lifeline during dark times – until Moritz reveals that he holds the key to their shared, sinister past, and has been keeping it from Ollie all along.

What do you do when your great life-plan works out, and you're still unhappy? Successful, but on the verge of burnout, Janice MacLeod saved enough money to buy herself two years of freedom in Europe. Days into her stop in Paris, she met Christophe, and her fate was sealed. Forced to find a way to fund her expat future, Janice created a painted letter subscription service, sending out thousands of letters to people who are hungry to receive something beautiful. Paris Letters is the inspiring story of a woman who dared to discover a life she could love.

The great Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a compulsive letter writer.