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A sense of place centers these poems and the author's connection to the land of the Kansas Prairie and High Plains. "He relishes in relics of people and times past that are treasures strewn along his paths... and will leave you longig to join Kelly Johnston in his place where 'If the lightning-latticed clouds on the horizon / give rain, we will start a fire, burn brush, / sip cold beer and send dreams aloft / with embers to the Milky Way.'" (Roy Beckemeyer, Mouth Brimming Over, The Currency of His Light, Stage Whispers, and Music I Once Could Dance To.)

Ana Amara is a Syrian journalist who has been living in Britain for a decade after escaping the war in Syria. She meets a caring British woman who becomes her partner and moves with her brothers move into Jennifer's house. But the brothers disapprove of the two women's relationship. They move out and sever contact with the women. Ana is investigating the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers by Britain's new Rightist government and publishing her findings with international human rights organizations. Then, Ana disappears. Jennifer's frantic search for her leads to others in the immigrant community and to Parliament, where Jennifer hopes to find MPs (Members of Parliament) who will help her. A lower-level civil servant with oversight responsibilities is bothered by a rge, unexplained budget increase for housing refugees. He decides to visit a camp to see what he can learn. The camp troubles him. He shares "off the record" what he observed with a member of the opposition, MP Dame Edith. With three of her colleagues in the Commons, she agrees to look into the situation and to inquire about Ana Amara. Meanwhile, members of the immigrant community inside and outside the deportation camps are terrified by increasing disappearances and seizures of immigrants and by growing British Islamophobia. As the months pass, hope fades that the intrepid Gang of Four MPs will be able to find Ana and learn what is happening in the privately run deportation camps. Jennifer, Ana's brothers, the civil servant, the four MPs, and Muslims in Britain worry that Britain's anti-immigrant government will cracks down further as they scover that foreign billionaires, the military, arms manufacturers, academics, and autocratic governments of nations are collaborating with the party in power in Britain. Will Europe's oldest democracy ever again be a safe haven? And where is Ana Amara?

Reggie Jarrell was adopted as a newborn by a childless couple who were part of his extended family. They agreed to let his teenaged birth mother be part of his life. But no one would speak of his birth father. Jarrell grew up in a loving home with parents who encouraged and supported him. His birth mother came in and out of his life. Despite knowing he was cherished, in his teens he longed to know who his birth father was. That longing resulted in decades of starting and stopping a search for the mysterious man whose genes he carried. It culminated when, in his fifties, Jarrell met Myron. What he uncovered about the secret man who had haunted him was shocking. As he learned more, his view of his birth mother was also altered. Jarrell tells this story with candor. He lets readers know of his ambivalence that stopped him from responding once he located his birth father. He shows readers the charismatic Myron, a teenager who got in trouble and the radiant Wanda who gave him life when she was fouirteen. Readers meet his adoptive parents who taught their beloved son to value books, hard work, and learning. Jarrell's story traces his own restlessness through an assortment of careers and the accumulation of multiple advanced degrees. We see him puzzling over what traits he may have inherited from Myron and why his family kept Myron a secret from him for so long was. This is a moving story of loss and recovery, of love in its various forms. It is an important read for people whose lives intersect it from any of the viewpoints: birth parents, adoptive parents, adoptees, those considering adoption, social workers, church groups. It is appropriate for families with middle school or older children to read together and for use in schools. Now, when most children experience multiple parent figures and many are estranged from family members, Jarrell's story shows that one can love and be enriched by multiple parent figures. And that love comes in various forms and can survive despite everything. Photos of his family enhance the text.

This collection of poems reflects Harkness's relationship with the worlds of nature, politics, loss, family, and hope. These poems are lyrics--songs offered to readers to hear and be inspired. Harkness is a mature and curious observer of the natural,,the human, and the global. Each poem sets forth a unique an angle of vision. Using no extra words or syllables, the language of the poet is distilled into a powerful, beautiful voice.

One-Match Fire is the story of love given and withheld among a grandfather, a father, and a grandson, and the Ozark cabin where they could usually find peace amid their struggles with each other. It is a saga of three generations. A late-in-life, reluctant father of an adoring son, learns he can atone for his own father's abandonment. A man who became a father far too young, adores his resistant son and feels inadequate in the role thrust upon him. A son distances from the father he has profoundly misjudged and hides a secret he fears to confess. For three generations the family cabin had healed their hesitant hearts and subtly shaped their souls. It granted these men and boys a respite from the quarrels that pulled them apart, and gave them moments of unguarded love in many subtle guises. Their cabin had been a place of campfires and confidences, of stargazing and skinny-dipping, and of clandestine acts of love that echoed through lifetimes. A place of coming together and coming of age. When their sanctuary must be sold to pay inescapable debts, each is certain this will fracture their brittle family forever. One-Match Fire is the story of relatable men living ordinary lives. But nothing feels ordinary to a man within his life. This novel probes the extraordinary of the everyday. It is a story of three men who love each other but struggle to express it before it's too late. It is also a story of the redemption brought by family traditions, the woods, and a wisdom that grows from love.

In 2020, the world was short on emotional resources to cope with the scale of death the pandemic, COVID-19, was producing. In U.S. culture, people view death multiple times a week in crime dramas and participate in "taking out" others in video games. Yet most people have not seen a dead body, other than their deceased pets, until aged parents die or cell phones record police killings. The popular culture tells them to "get over it" when they lose a family member."Denial is not an effective life strategy," Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, told the world as his state struggled to cope with unprecedented numbers of deaths, inadequate protective gear for hospital workers, and overwhelmed mortuaries. Denial was totally ineffective as the numbers rose, and later, when some communities opened bars and churches and eagerly embraced their former social lives, only to experience the numbers of the infected grow and one thousand Americans a day dying of the virus.But denial was our cultural default, that and secret terror.In this collection of stories, poems, memoirs, and information, 36 writers from across the US, Australia, Turkey, Britain, Bosnia and Herzegovina share their experiences of death, dying, grief, and recovery. The writers are Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Bah''ais, atheists, and New Age. They are different races and from different immigrant communities. Some write of family loss including suicide, others of war or devastating illness, others of rituals that help them recover. COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter are among the subjects addressed. The stories and poems presented here are moving and provocative, selected to present the amazing diversity of humankind as they cope with the unifying experience of death and loss. This collection is intended to help people traverse this time of international pandemic and fear and find companionship in their personal journeys as death crosses their paths. NOTE: Proceeds from sales of this book beyond the cost of publication will go to health care workers through international organizations fighting the novel corona virus.

This story is based on real events that took place in 1984. When an inexperienced crew set off to bring a yacht full of cannabis resin from Lebanon to London, they had no idea they were not simply drug trafficking but participating in what the British government would call "Operation Bishop." The crew found themselves part of an international drama linked to the foreign policies of the British and U.S. governments, trapped at the nexus of the Cold War and the war against terrorism. This celebrated case was silenced by the British government, the records still classified and not to be publicly available for 80 years--until 2064. This fictionalized story imagines the crew members, their journey, their prison time, and their trials, and why the British government took such an unusual step to hide details of Operation Bishop. Actual historical figures in this book include President Reagan, CIA Director William Casey, National Security Council staff Oliver North, and Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi as well as Casey''s friends in international business. Scenes with these historical people are imagined, but their involvement in the Iran Contra affair is well documented. See Discussion of Sources. The participants in Operation Bishop presented in this novel are imagined and any resemblance to the actual participants is coincidental and unintended. A study guide and an appendix are included.

When Duncan Allan comes home early from a business trip and surprises his wife with his charming elder brother, anger and despair overwhelm him. He flees, drinks himself to oblivion, and ends up escaping to a remote fishing village on Scotland’s North Sea coast to try to survive this double betrayal. There an elderly Scot, a Dutch child and her mother rescue him and he rebuilds his life. When tragedy strikes, he is again lost and alone, shrinking again into immobilizing depression.Abandoned by her husband in Wichita, Kansas and pregnant, Duncan's wife Amy also has to reinvent her life—a single mom in a Midwestern city sharing her home with her gay brother-in-law and his partner. Her need to understand Duncan’s disappearance prevents her from fully moving on with her life.When years later her son and his travel buddy meet a gruff and unfriendly American in Scotland, all three Allans must choose must whether to wade into their family secrets and anger. Is Duncan worth finding or should they all let him go?Moving between Wichita, Kansas  and the North Sea coast of Scotland, this lyrical novel explores the impact of perceived betrayal, the devastation of severed relationships, and the capacity for rebuilding lives haunted by chronic depression and loss. 

Prize-winning journalist Mark McCormick’s best columns are collected here. He writes of people with Kansas connections who altered their world, those known and those not household names: Gordon Parks, Dwight Eisenhower, Diane Nash, Don Hollowell, James Reeb, Barry Sanders, Sam Adams, Ron Walters, Arthur Fletcher, Bessie Halbrook, etc. His stories are memorable because they bring into focus people, events and relationships from the broad canvas of America and enlarge readers’ understanding of what is regularly overlooked or undervalued. You won’t forget his account of his time with Muhammed Ali. McCormick makes visible people of color and the role race plays in their lives and of national issues like police-community relations, 9/11’s aftermath, Muslim Americans, LGBTQ Americans, and gangs. McCormick writes beautifully, with wisdom and love. This is a special edition designed for first-year students at Wichita State University and their teachers. A discussion guide provides specific ways for readers to interact with these essays.

Roy Beckemeyer celebrates the world in exuberant, expansive poetry, rich with evocative language. Read these poems aloud. Let them resonate in your vocal cords as they unfold on the page. A celebration of life and growth at all stages.