The story of a young Southeast Asian girl's life with her eccentric blended family in Lesotho, and her search for the truth about her absent father, is a parable for the country's own quest for freedom and maturity.Red Dust, Red Sky is set in southern Africa during the time of official apartheid. A family originally from India lives in exile in the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho, a tiny country entirely surrounded by South Africa itself. The aftermath of the murder of a student activist at the hands of the South African police - betrayal, the struggle for redemption and years of life underground - is the basis for this powerful story. The language is beautiful, the plot riveting, the characters vivid, edgy and humorous, full of life and eccentric energy, sexual and otherwise. The story is told by Kokoanyana, a girl growing up in the small and closed belief system of rural Lesotho. She is obsessed with discovering the story of her lost father, but the many lies her mother tells her to avoid the potentially dangerous truth has sensitized Koko to the many lies and delusions of the adults around her. This is a world of concealed facts, obscure events, and phenomena only explicable in terms of the ancestors, Shiva, and the South African Defence Force. Kokoanyana's persistent pursuit gradually unearths pieces of the puzzle. But as the family's political history reveals itself, the soldiers advance.

"A sudden and violent explosion deep in the wastes of Antarctica hurls high into the stratosphere a vast cloud of lethal red dust which sweeps across the world. Wherever the dust settles people succumb to a strange plague until only a few survivors are left - the Immunes. A small band of Immues battle the odds and win through to New Zealand where they meet a group of scientists known as S.A.S., who have a palliative for the plague ..."--Jacket.

Cross Words refers to cultural hybrids, trans-cultural alliances, and associations. This fascinating compendium documents—in essays, conversations, and socratic raps—the vital work poets perform when they write across borders. Anne Waldman is the author of more than forty collections of poetry, the editor of numerous anthologies, and, for The Iovis Trilogy, the winner of the Shelley Memorial Award and the USA PEN Center Award for Poetry. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Laura E. Wright is a poet, translator, and librarian. With Anne Waldman, she co-edited Beats at Naropa (Coffee House Press, 2009).

The sixth in a series of books about the people and their way of life in the Southern Appalachians. Mullins continues the hilarious saga of the fun-loving, hardworking people of Coaley Creek with more shenanigans, mischief, and exciting adventures. His many fans will be delighted with this latest collection of stories about that wonderful life of long ago.