Personal genome testing, gene editing for life-threatening diseases, synthetic life: once the stuff of science fiction, twentieth- and twenty-first-century advancements blur the lines between scientific narrative and scientific fact. This examination of bioengineering in popular and literary culture shows that the influence of science on science fiction is more reciprocal than we might expect. Looking closely at the work of Margaret Atwood, Richard Powers, and other authors, as well as at film, comics, and serial television such as Orphan Black, Everett Hamner shows how the genome age is transforming both the most commercial and the most sophisticated stories we tell about the core of human personhood. As sublime technologies garner public awareness beyond the genre fiction shelves, they inspire new literary categories like “slipstream” and shape new definitions of the human, the animal, the natural, and the artificial. In turn, what we learn of bioengineering via popular and literary culture prepares the way for its official adoption or restriction—and for additional representations. By imagining the connections between emergent gene testing and editing capacities and long-standing conversations about freedom and determinism, these stories help build a cultural zeitgeist with a sharper, more balanced vision of predisposed agency. A compelling exploration of the interrelationships among science, popular culture, and self, Editing the Soul sheds vital light on what the genome age means to us, and what’s to come.

Personal genome testing, gene editing for life-threatening diseases, synthetic life: once the stuff of science fiction, twentieth- and twenty-first-century advancements blur the lines between scientific narrative and scientific fact. This examination of bioengineering in popular and literary culture shows that the influence of science on science fiction is more reciprocal than we might expect. Looking closely at the work of Margaret Atwood, Richard Powers, and other authors, as well as at film, comics, and serial television such as Orphan Black, Everett Hamner shows how the genome age is transforming both the most commercial and the most sophisticated stories we tell about the core of human personhood. As sublime technologies garner public awareness beyond the genre fiction shelves, they inspire new literary categories like “slipstream” and shape new definitions of the human, the animal, the natural, and the artificial. In turn, what we learn of bioengineering via popular and literary culture prepares the way for its official adoption or restriction—and for additional representations. By imagining the connections between emergent gene testing and editing capacities and long-standing conversations about freedom and determinism, these stories help build a cultural zeitgeist with a sharper, more balanced vision of predisposed agency. A compelling exploration of the interrelationships among science, popular culture, and self, Editing the Soul sheds vital light on what the genome age means to us, and what’s to come.

This is the second volume of the widely acclaimed Art of the Cut book published in 2017. This follow-up text expands on its predecessor with wisdom from more than 360 interviews with the world’s best editors (including nearly every Oscar winner from the last 30 years). Because editing is a highly subjective art form, and one that is critical to the success of motion picture storytelling, it requires side-by-side comparisons of the many techniques and solutions used by a wide range of editors from around the world. That is why this book compares and contrasts methodologies from a wide array of diverse voices and organizes that information so that it is easily digested and understood. There is no one way to approach editorial problems, so this book allows readers to see multiple solutions from multiple editors. The interviews contained within are carefully curated into topics that are most important to film editors and those who aspire to become film editors. The questions asked, and the organization of the book, are not merely an academic or theoretical view of the art of editing but rather the practical advice and methodologies of actual working film and TV editors, bringing benefits to both students and professional readers. The book is supplemented by a collection of downloadable online exclusive chapters, which cover additional topics ranging from Choosing the Project to VFX. In addition to the supplementary chapters, access to the full-color, full-resolution images printed in the book—and other exclusive images—is included.

God wants YOU to become a hero of the Faith. He wants all of us to share the truth and beauty we've found in the Catholic Church, no matter who we are or where we come from. In One Moment Can Change a Soul: Helping Catholics Come Home, you'll find encouragement and inspiration to say "yes" to God's call. Tom Peterson shows how God gives each one of us the grace we need to share the Faith and show countless people the way home to Jesus and his Church. "The mission of Tom Peterson and Catholics Come Home to bring souls home to Jesus and the church is critically important during this challenging time in our history. I fully support this New Evangelization project." - Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life "Tom inspires each of us to share God's love with others in order to help change the world for the better, for eternity." - Roma Downey, Touched by an Angel star and co-producer of The Bible TV series. ABOUT THE AUTHOR After twenty-five years as an award-winning corporate advertising executive, Tom Peterson experienced a radical spiritual conversion while on a Catholic retreat. Soon afterward, he founded three media apostolates: VirtueMedia.org (pro-life), CatholicsComeHome.org (new evangelization), and AmenAlleluia.org. Catholics Come Home, the first faith group ever to air on national networks like CBS, NBC, and ESPN has reached over 300 million viewers and helped more than a half-million souls home to the Catholic Church. Tom hosts the popular prime-time EWTN television series Catholics Come Home, has presented internationally at over five hundred Catholic conferences, has had numerous appearances on national media venues, and has authored five popular books. He has been a member of Legatus International for eighteen years and served as vice-chairman. Tom lives in Atlanta with his wife of thirty-four years, and has three daughters, and six grandchildren.

Essays from twenty-seven leading book editors: “Honest and unflinching accounts from publishing insiders . . . a valuable primer on the field.” —Publishers Weekly Editing is an invisible art in which the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly understand the range of roles they inhabit while shepherding a project from concept to publication. What Editors Do gathers essays from twenty-seven leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers—and readers—everywhere. Ironically for an industry built on words, there has been a scarcity of written guidance on how to approach the work of editing. Serving as a compendium of professional advice and a portrait of what goes on behind the scenes, this book sheds light on how editors acquire books, what constitutes a strong author-editor relationship, and the editor’s vital role at each stage of the publishing process—a role that extends far beyond marking up the author’s text. This collection treats editing as both art and craft, and also as a career. It explores how editors balance passion against the economic realities of publishing—and shows why, in the face of a rapidly changing publishing landscape, editors are more important than ever. “Authoritative, entertaining, and informative.” —Copyediting

Evocative of Alice in Wonderland, this novel from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver is a bewitching story about the reaches of loyalty and the enduring power of hope. Perfect for fans of the author’s other middle grade novels: Liesl & Po and the Curiosity House series. Looking across the breakfast table one morning, twelve-year-old Liza feels dread wash over her. Although her younger brother, Patrick, appears the same, Liza knows that he is actually quite different. She is certain that the spindlers—evil, spiderlike beings—came during the night and stole his soul. And Liza is also certain that she is the only one who can rescue him. Armed with little more than her wits and a huge talking rat for a guide, Liza descends into the dark and ominous underground to save Patrick's soul. Her quest is far from easy: she must brave tree-snakes, the Court of Stones, and shape-shifting scawgs before facing her greatest challenge in the spindlers' lair, where more than just Patrick's soul is at stake.

Few terms have garnered more attention recently in the sciences, humanities, and public sphere than the Anthropocene, the proposed epoch in which a human “signature” appears in the lithostratigraphic record. Anthropocene Reading considers the implications of this concept for literary history and critical method. Entering into conversation with geologists and geographers, this volume reinterprets the cultural past in relation to the anthropogenic transformation of the Earth system while showcasing how literary analysis may help us conceptualize this geohistorical event. The contributors examine how a range of literary texts, from The Tempest to contemporary dystopian novels to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, mediate the convergence of the social institutions, energy regimes, and planetary systems that support the reproduction of life. They explore the long-standing dialogue between imaginative literature and the earth sciences and show how scientists, novelists, and poets represent intersections of geological and human timescales, the deep past and a posthuman future, political exigency and the carbon cycle. Accessibly written and representing a range of methodological perspectives, the essays in this volume consider what it means to read literary history in the Anthropocene. Contributors include Juliana Chow, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Thomas H. Ford, Anne-Lise François, Noah Heringman, Matt Hooley, Stephanie LeMenager, Dana Luciano, Steve Mentz, Benjamin Morgan, Justin Neuman, Jennifer Wenzel, and Derek Woods.