Gold Nautilus Book Award Winner Leading African American Buddhist teachers offer lessons on racism, resilience, spiritual freedom, and the possibility of a truly representative American Buddhism. With contributions by Acharya Gaylon Ferguson, Cheryl A. Giles, Gyōzan Royce Andrew Johnson, Ruth King, Kamilah Majied, Lama Rod Owens, Lama Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Sebene Selassie, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde. What does it mean to be Black and Buddhist? In this powerful collection of writings, African American teachers from all the major Buddhist traditions tell their stories of how race and Buddhist practice have intersected in their lives. The resulting explorations display not only the promise of Buddhist teachings to empower those facing racial discrimination but also the way that Black Buddhist voices are enriching the Dharma for all practitioners. As the first anthology comprised solely of writings by African-descended Buddhist practitioners, this book is an important contribution to the development of the Dharma in the West.

Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness reveals the human side of mental illness. In this remarkable collection of interviews and essays, therapist, Madness Radio host, and schizophrenia survivor Will Hall asks, "What does it mean to be called crazy in a crazy world?" More than 60 voices of psychiatric patients, scientists, journalists, doctors, activists, and artists create a vital new conversation about empowering the human spirit by transforming society. "Bold, fearless, and compellingly readable... a refuge and an oasis from the overblown claims of American psychiatry" - Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became an Illness "A terrific conversation partner." - Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness "Brilliant...wonderfully grand and big-hearted." - Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America "Must-read for anyone interested in creating a more just and compassionate world." - Alison Hillman, Open Society Foundation Human Rights Initiative "An intelligent, thought-provoking, and rare concept. These are voices worth listening to." - Mary O'Hara, The Guardian "A new, helpful, liberating-and dare I say, sane-way of re-envisioning our ideas of mental illness." Paul Levy, Director of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, Portland, Oregon "A fantastic resource for those who are seeking change." Dr. Pat Bracken MD, psychiatrist and Clinical Director of Mental Health Service, West Cork, Ireland

The essays in Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision spring from an International Summer Institute held in 1996 on the cultural restoration of oppressed Indigenous peoples. The contributors, primarily Indigenous, unravel the processes of colonization that enfolded modern society and resulted in the oppression of Indigenous peoples.

Gary Truce's poems cover a variety of subjects such as nature, personal relationships, and the cosmos. As a long-time professor of health and wellness, one might expect to see poems promoting wholesome relationships and healthy lifestyles. However, the poems' speakers are often not Truce and we read of troubled lives. Hence, the title, Voices on Visions, with Truce as poet persona playing many roles. The speakers are usually compassionate and sensitive indulging in the beauty and wonder of nature. Other speakers are lost, searching, depressed, romantic, or comic. Truce seems happiest when he communes with nature describing wildlife, landscapes, bodies of water, and an ever-changing sky. Sometimes the reader is taken beyond Earth to an exploration of the cosmic-at times with a Godly perspective with reassuring orderliness, and at other times with a human perspective filled with uncertainty, despair, folly, confusion, or amazement. Ultimately, Truce's high degree of optimism tips the balance in Visions. So, feel the crisp coolness of spring air, pour the maple syrup and melt the butter on blueberry pancakes while viewing the maple grove through the open kitchen window. As Truce writes, "And when the steam appears from the sugar shack-you know at last it's spring!"

This book introduces to a larger audience the work of a group of Mexican writers whose work reflects the stimulus of the "boom" of the 1960s, especially in the experimental nueva novella.Duncan views the work of six writers in the context of more well known writers of the period (Ruflo, Fuentes, and Del Paso), and concludes with a chapter on other recent innovators in Mexican literature. Despite their diversity, these texts share many common features, and unlike social realism, the works are not openly political, but at the same time they question assumptions about reality itself-and the relation of fiction to truth.

A rich selection of writings by notable preachers, politicians, poets, novelists, essayists, and diarists.