Mourningbird

A creature of darkness lurks in the shadows of Velaroth, wearing the skin of its victims, and grips the city in terror. Dorian, a Necrophage bent on sowing chaos and paving the way for his people’s invasion, has declared war on the humans of Eidolan, and there appears to be no one capable of stopping him. Kiera’s world is shattered by those who hold power, and she is forced to seek an ally. The nightbird is coming into power of her own, but can she stay alive long enough to seize it? Russel’s behavior has taken a turn for the worse, and his actions have drawn the attention of those who would use his amazing talents for their own gain…and everyone else’s loss. The battle for Velaroth, and perhaps the world, has begun. Who will win? Who will live to mourn the dead? Will there be anything left for the victor to claim as their prize?

When eleven-year-old Chimuka and her younger brother Ali find themselves orphaned in the 1990s, it's clear that their seemingly ordinary Zambian family is brimming with secrets: from HIV/AIDS to infidelity to suicide. Faced with the difficult choice of living with their abusive extended family or slithering into the dark underbelly of Lusaka's streets, Chimuka and Ali escape and become street kids. Against the backdrop of a failed military coup, election riots and a declining economy, Chimuka and Ali are raised by drugs, crime and police brutality. As a teenager, Chimuka is caught between prostitution and the remnants of the fragile stability from before her parents' death. The Mourning Bird is not just Chimuka's story, it's a national portrait of Zambia in an era of strife. With lively and unflinching prose, Kalimamukwento paints a country's burden, shame and silence that, when juxtaposed with Chimuka's triumph, forms an empowering debut novel.

The year is 1959, in Boise, Idaho. Nine-year-old Hannibal has lost his parents and moves in with his recently widowed grandfather, Pop. Hannibal grows up under the loving guidance of Pop, who subtly imparts life's important lessons: the responsibility that comes with love, the nature of charity respect for all living things, and the dangers in telling a lie. Pop is a humble man whose loving example extends far beyond his small circle. While he has attained no social recognition or position, the ripple effect of his example reaches generations into the future. With simple storytelling and honest sentiment, The Mourning Dove answers the question, "What is the worth of one person?"

In selecting Margaret Walker as the recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1942—making her the first African American to receive this national literary award—Stephen Vincent Benét proclaimed hers a vibrant new voice, finding in her collection For My People “a controlled intensity of emotion and a language that, at times, even when it is most modern, has something of a surge of biblical poetry.” Today, more than seventy years later, Walker’s voice still resonates with particular power. Addressing the literature and culture of black America, This Is My Century, first published in 1989, marked a significant contribution to American poetry, bringing together Walker’s selection of one hundred of her own poems. On the eve of the centennial of Walker’s birth, the University of Georgia Press is proud to reissue this classic of American letters. In addition to her award-winning debut collection, the volume includes Prophets for a New Day (1970), a celebration of the civil rights movement; October Journey (1973), a collection of autobiographical and dedicatory poems; and thirty-seven previously uncollected poems.

An exquisite story of two naturalists who find unexpected love as they work to save a rare bird species on an island off the coast of Mauritius. "An exquisitely written, deeply felt novel."--Alev Little Croutier ("Seven Houses").

This work analyzes Spenser's setting of the entire Amoretti courtship against a backdrop of sacred time and his efforts to demonstrate the interpenetration of the divine and the human. The eighty-nine sonnets are shown to be sequential in their complex pattern of balanced themes, structural frameworks, developing images, and clusters of etymological wordplay.

Korra Marie Simmons, a sixteen-year girl born into a world ravaged by nuclear warfare, has the special gift of feeling no pain. After years of learning how to live in a simulated body and fight in a world created by computer scientists, one man fights to destroy everything she has worked for. Korra is thrown into the outside world where she discovers that it is more than bunkers, doctors, and training. The Central States of America depends on her special skill set to keep them alive in World War V. But due to circumstances, they have now turned her efforts toward something much more dangerous, so dangerous that the pain alone just might kill her.

The Modern Day Poet is a collection of poetry that attempts to define the poet in relation to modern society. The poetry is heavy with imagery for the more serious reader, but is presented in a format of story telling that is easy and entertaining for the casual reader. Meticulously written over a ten-year period, the collection provides the reader with new revelations at each reading. To begin the poet invites you to share in his dreams with a simple poetic wish. Then follow the birth of the poetic mind as the poet explores the modern world, an exploration that ultimately ends in a crescendo of defiant hope. The poems in this collection are rhythmic and are best read aloud.