An exquisite collection of 120 poems (mostly unpublished) encapsulating the tragic and bucolic lives of Sac Prairie's inhabitants.

The Prairies is a rumination on the past, what was a pristine landscape transformed into an ecosystem endangered by the sins of our fathers. The text is comprised of a timeline of historical facts describing the demise of the landscape and stanzas from the poem "The Prairies" by William Cullen Bryant celebrating the plains.

"Prairie Style is about the breakdown of location and voice. It lays out a landscape of habitations (Frank Lloyd Wright's designs for "servantless families," fox dens in an embankment, the two-mile long face of Chicago's Robert Taylor public housing project, etc.) and crosses and recrosses the line between poetry and prose. The book is an acknowledgement of the "terrible frankness" of color, pleasure's distance, and the similarity of equivocation and argument. Prairie Style is the turn inland. "Inland, one needs something more racial, say bigger, than mountains.""--BOOK JACKET.

In this shining debut, identity and community converge in poems for a modern generation. Beginning with the open prairie skies of her youth, Sarah Ens maps an emergence into millennial womanhood, questioning feminine expectations and examining heartache and disembodiment during an age of personal and planetary upheaval. The World Is Mostly Sky looks backwards and inwards to find respite in stars, warm earth, and deep waters while rejoicing in the sacred bonds of sisterhood that offer the courage to meet our uncertain horizon.

A collection of articles, essays, poems, and other writings which shows that the author known for her Little house books was a prolific and talented writer all her life.

James Ransom presents readers with poems covering an astonishing diversity of subjects. There are iconic echoes in some of them—Auden, Eliot and Shakespeare, as well as John Crowe Ransom and Christian Wiman—but comprehending the poems is never dependent on the reader’s scholarship. These poems are plain-spoken and heartfelt. The subjects include observations of nature—prairie landscapes of Kansas (title poem) as well as the crags and forests of Scotland. You will be taken to an emergency room and surgery; you will also read about the arson of a church, even the demise of a fish. There are lessons from history and ironic observations about poetry itself. A sense of humor is found in unexpected places. Ransom reflects on childhood and maturity, and on his love and admiration for family members with challenges to meet. He is not afraid to confront questions of religion and faith in unorthodox ways. Political themes are not taboo here, but neither do they dominate. For a clash of cultures, read “Interview From Kotzebue.” Or try “Darfur.” Unlike the tradition of most books of poetry, Ransom includes photos and paintings. He believes that we live immersed in a culture of image and motion, which can be used to add another dimension to some poems. In that sense, this book is an experiment. If you have been confused, bored or disappointed by modern poetry, this book may help you re-engage.

Afro-futurist poet and 2010 World Poetry Slam winner Keteku blends time and space, encouraging readers to see themselves as more than human; as part of a celestial narrative. Strongly influenced by his upbringing and journeys throughout Africa, Keteku's work follows in the lineage of African storytelling by paying homage to the past while conjuring a thought-provoking future.