From love and war to Shark Week and college football, this award-winning poetry collection “makes both the marvelous and quotidian buzz with brilliance” (Matt Rasmussen). Incantatory, intimate, and incendiary, the poems of this award-winning debut are filled with explosive wit and humor like “a knife you don’t see coming.” A kaleidoscopic intelligence flows through Beautiful Zero, embracing forms of culture high and low in effort to finding meaning in the chaos. A series of poems set in a Kaiser Permanente hospital tear into the world of privatized health care while simultaneously charting a story of love in the face of catastrophe. Yet even at her most surreal, Willoughby always finds the pulsing heart at the core of the poem. She embraces what she cannot understand about both the world and herself because after all, “Nothing is as random as they say it is. / You were born the weirdo that you are.” Winner of the 2015 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry

When you’re a new parent, the miracle of life might not always feel so miraculous. Maybe your latest 2:00 a.m., 2:45 a.m., and 3:30 a.m. wake-up calls have left you wondering how “sleep like a baby” ever became a figure of speech—and what the options are for restoring your sanity. Or your child just left bite marks on someone, and you’re wondering how to handle it. First-time mom Tracy Cutchlow knows what you’re going through. In Zero to Five: 70 Essential Parenting Tips Based on Science (and What I’ve Learned So Far), she takes dozens of parenting tips based on scientific research and distills them into something you can easily digest during one of your two-minute-long breaks in the day. The pages are beautifully illustrated by award-winning photojournalist Betty Udesen. Combining the warmth of a best friend with a straightforward style, Tracy addresses questions such as: Should I talk to my pregnant belly / newborn? Is that going to feel weird? (Yes, and absolutely.) How do I help baby sleep well? (Start with the 45-minute rule.) How can I instill a love of learning in my child? (By using specific types of praise and criticism.) What will boost my child’s success in school? (Play that requires self-control, like make-believe.) My baby loves videos and cell-phone games. That’s cool, right? (If you play, too.) What tamps down temper tantrums? (Naming emotions out loud.) My sweet baby just hit a playmate / lied to me about un-potting the plant / talked back. Now what? (Choose one of three logical consequences.) How do I get through an entire day of this? (With help. Lots of help.) Who knew babies were so funny? (They are!) Whether you read the book front to back or skip around, Zero to Five will help you make the best of the tantrums (yours and baby’s), moments of pure joy, and other surprises along the totally-worth-it journey of parenting.

Incantatory, intimate, and incendiary, the poems of this award-winning debut are filled with explosive wit and humor like "a knife you don't see coming." A kaleidoscopic intelligence flows through Beautiful Zero, embracing forms of culture high and low in effort to finding meaning in the chaos. Poems about Shark Week and college football sit beside Roman Polanski and biting critiques of modern war. A series of poems set in a Kaiser Permanente hospital tear into the world of privatized health care while simultaneously charting a story of love in the face of catastrophe. Yet even at her most surreal, Willoughby always finds the pulsing heart at the core of the poem. She embraces what she cannot understand about both the world and herself because after all, "Nothing is as random as they say it is. / You were born the weirdo that you are."

"Powerful and poetic." —John David Anderson, author of Posted and Ms. Bixby's Last Day Elise carries a notebook full of tallies, each page marking a day spent at her new public school, each stroke of her pencil marking a word spoken. A word that can't be taken back. Five tally marks isn't so bad. Two is pretty good. But zero? Zero is perfect. Zero means no wrong answers called out in class, no secrets accidentally spilled, no conversations to agonize over at night when sleep is far away. But now months have passed, and Elise isn't sure she could speak even if she wanted to—not to keep her only friend, Mel, from drifting further away—or to ask if anyone else has seen her English teacher's stuffed raven come to life. Then, the discovery of a shocking family secret helps Elise realize that her silence might just be the key to unlocking everything she's ever hoped for... Praise for After Zero: "This tender and truthful book stays with you long after the words have gone." —Patricia Forde, author of The List "A must read. After Zero reminds us of so many loved ones of those suffering from anxiety or depressive disorders. It is a story that will hopefully foster empathy and maybe even communication with our 'quiet' peers." —Wesley King, author of OCDaniel

In this National Book Award Finalist, a cop navigates unexplained memory gaps, a mysterious new assignment, and a world gone mad in the wake of 9/11. Officer Brian Remy has no idea how he got here. It’s been only five days since terrorists attacked his city, and Remy is experiencing gaps in his life—as if he were a stone being skipped across water. He has a self-inflicted gunshot wound that he doesn’t remember inflicting. He has a beautiful new girlfriend whose name he doesn’t know. His son insists on mourning him, despite his being alive. And his old partner now appears on a box of First Responder cereal. While smoke still hangs over the city, Remy is recruited by a shadowy government agency assigned to gather all of the paper that was scattered in the attacks. As Remy stumbles across a dangerous plot, he realizes he must track down the most elusive target of all—himself. And the only way to do that is to return to that place where everything started falling apart.

For fans of 13 Reasons Why and Girl in Pieces, this is a novel that shows the path to hope and life for a girl with mental illness. Seventeen-year-old Catherine Pulaski knows Zero is coming for her. Zero, the devastating depression born of Catherine’s bipolar disorder, almost triumphed once; that was her first suicide attempt. And so, in an old ballet-shoe box, Catherine stockpiles medications, preparing to take her own life before Zero can inflict his living death on her again. Before she goes, though, she starts a short bucket list. This bucket list, combined with the support of her family, new friends, and a new course of treatment, begins to ease Catherine’s sense of isolation. The problem is, her plan is already in place, and has been for so long that she might not be able to see a future beyond it. This is a story of loss and grief and hope, and how some of the many shapes of love—maternal, romantic, and platonic—affect a young woman’s struggle with mental illness and the stigma of treatment.