Enka, a sentimental ballad genre, epitomizes for many the nihonjin no kokoro (heart/soul of Japanese). To older members of the Japanese public, who constitute enka's primary audience, this music--of parted lovers, long unseen rural hometowns, and self-sacrificing mothers--evokes a direct connection to the traditional roots of "Japaneseness." Overlooked in this emotional invocation of the past, however, are the powerful commercial forces that, since the 1970s, have shaped the consumption of enka and its version of national identity. Informed by theories of nostalgia, collective memory, cultural nationalism, and gender, this book draws on the author's extensive fieldwork in probing the practice of identity-making and the processes at work when Japan becomes "Japan."

Recounts the author's life as the son of Rwandese Tutsi refugees living in Uganda. With his grandfather's help he explores injustices he faced at school and around the village. At the peak of a civil war between the Uganda People's Congress and the National Resistance Army, Patrick is kidnapped by a defecting NRA soldier. Believing that he is acting in the best interest of his tribe and family, Patrick joins the National Resistance Army (NRA) when he is 14 years old. Injured during training, he returns home. Realizing that he must develop both physical and mental strength he moves to Kampala, the capital city, to attend high school, living at first with an abusive, alchoholic uncle. After the sudden death of his father, Patrick is faced with the burden of functioning as the head of his family. He uses his scholarship funds to support them, but that is not enough. Deep in debt, Patrick must find a job to continue to feed his mother, siblings, and grandparent. Determined to get out of poverty, he sells all his belongs and the family's last cow and migrates to the United States. After a few years of earning his veterinary licensing, Patrick is soon thriving in his new home. He then makes a journey back to Africa to show his children their roots, to see how his success has transformed his family and the tribe.

Writing has been my passion for far longer than I can remember. Through all my trials and tribulations in life and relationships, it has been my relief when ever I felt there was no other resort. I've dreamt of publishing for years now, being that I write what I feel if you pick up this book and can relate to at least one poem then I'm human, normal, just like you. So with that said, allow me to embrace you through word. Move you emotionally and caress your soul. Get to know the side few people know, the lover, the mother, the fighter, survivor, the poet. Get to know me.

One internet post. Ten Poets. Less than thirty days. Read an unlikely collection of poems submitted by users of a certain social networking site. A diversity of voices communicating on a range of topics through the art of verse. Brought to you by an even more unlikely source, Rotting Horse Publishing. A house of horror delivers its most unexpected work yet. No blood or boogeymen needed to tell this story. The story of us.

Martyr was written over a three year period between 2015 and 2018. It was begun while Kathleen was living in Algiers, Algeria with her daughter and continues through the summer of 2018 in Oran, Tlemcen, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria and through the fall of 2018. In 2008, Kathleen's son Rayan Mehdi passed away and she was inconsolable. This book, MARTYR, is the result of three years of therapeutic writing. Kathleen writes in English but often incorporates Algerian Dardja or Algerian Arabic into her writing. Martyr is the sequel to THE BOOK OF MOULAY, published in 2015. There are also poems written after Kathleen visited Morocco in 2015. There are influences from both countries in the body of her work. Kathleen took her daughter Zahra to Algeria in the winter of 2015 2016 and lived in Algiers in an apartment in a neighborhood called Birmourad Rais. She returned to Algeria in the summer of 2018 and travelled to Batna and drove across the country and wrote and filmed.