In this book, David Lehman, the longtime series editor of the Best American Poetry, offers a masterclass in writing in form and collaborative composition. An inspired compilation of his weekly column on the American Scholar website, Next Line, Please makes the case for poetry open to all. Next Line, Please gathers in one place the popular column’s plethora of exercises and prompts that Lehman designed to unlock the imaginations of poets and creative writers. He offers his generous and playful mentorship on forms such as the sonnet, haiku, tanka, sestina, limerick, and the cento and shares strategies for how to build one line from the last. This groundbreaking book shows how pop-up crowds of poets can inspire one another, making art, with what poet and guest editor Angela Ball refers to as "spontaneous feats of language." How can poetry thrive in the digital age? Next Line, Please shows the way. Lehman writes, "There is something magical about poetry, and though we think of the poet as working alone, working in the dark, it is all the better when a community of like-minded individuals emerges, sharing their joy in the written word."

In this remarkable debut novel set in San Diego, 16-year-old Claire thinks she is pregnant and imagines that being a mother would be cool. As spring turns into summer, she learns all about motherhood---especially what it's like being a single mother---and the depths and joys of life resonate around a turquoise, community pool. Claire's mama, Virginia, is HIV positive, way too loud, and on an unusual quest. Claire's boyfriend’s mother, Molly, a poetic soul, has left behind a world of spousal abuse in Seattle. Renata, another mother, is an elegant, New York lawyer who watches her picture-perfect life come undone. And Dorie, a wild would-be writer and young mother, seeks to feel something at whatever cost. Until the unspeakable happens. Like The Joy Luck Club, Waiting to Exhale and How To Make An American Quilt, THE DEEPER, THE BLUER is about the friendship between women, about mothers and daughters, about celebration and loss. It also reveals the aching desire of a teenage girl to save her mother, make sense of her world, to love and be loved. As Claire says, "Real love must be the tightest sucking in of breath, a hold so pure and blue, the deepest blue you can imagine." An unforgettable and moving story from a writer with great promise.

Saberhagen, continues the Book of the Gods series that began with The Face of Apollo. Shiva has overthrown the rightful King Minos of Crete and in his place put a minion of the gods of Death. Sacrifices are demanded. Theseus, a young hostage, and his companions are doomed, unless Princess Ariadne, her brother Ariadne is the daughter of the King Minos. The creature in the Labyrinth is her brother Theseus is a young man sentenced to be sacrificed by the gods, with whom Ariadne falls deeply in love. She conspires to spare him from his grisly fate, but doesn't count on Dionysus stepping in to complicate matters. With mystical beasts and whimsical gods confronting them at every turn, Ariadne and Theseus must find their way through a maze of events that are as twisted as they are dangerous.

Daisy Al-Amir is one of the more visible figures in women's fiction in the Arab world today. This collection of stories, originally published in Lebanon as Ala La'ihat al-Intizar, is the most recent of her five publications. Her stories intimately reflect women's experiences in the chaotic worlds of the Lebanese civil war and the rise of Saadam Hussain as Iraq's leader. Set in Iraq, Cyprus, and Lebanon, the stories shed light on an unusual Middle East refugee experience—that of a cultural refugee, a divorced woman who is educated, affluent, and alone. Al-Amir is also a poet and novelist, whose sensual prose grows out of a long tradition of Iraqi poetry. But one also finds existential themes in her works, as Al-Amir tries to balance what seems fated and what seems arbitrary in the turbulent world she inhabits. She deals with time and space in a minimalist, surreal style, while studying the disappointments of life through the subjective lens of memory. Honestly facing the absence of family and the instability of place, Al-Amir gives lifelike qualities to the inanimate objects of her rapidly changing world. In addition to the stories, two examples of the author's experimental poems are included. In her introduction, Mona Mikhail places these stories and poems in the context of contemporary Islamic literature and gender studies.

Have you ever embarked on a trip that you were so looking forward to that you could hardly sleep the night before? Narcis I. Murza invites you to set out on such a journey! You will learn that life was never meant to be a daily survival routine. You were not designed for an ordinary, frustration-filled life. You were created to thrive. On this journey, you will follow in the footsteps of outstanding Bible figures. The lessons you learn will show you the path to real success. From Abraham to Jesus, the road you’re about to go on leads straight to God’s promises! See, God has never wanted you to live a small, meaningless life. In fact, Scripture draws us to a path of fulfillment, of blessing based on divine promises and its pages are filled with courageous people who went on this journey. Now it’s your turn. It’s not an easy road but if you think that happiness is intertwined with suffering, if you think that victory and sweat are two sides of the same coin, and if you understand that there is no glory without a cross, you’ll surely enjoy Awaken Your Destiny.

‘There were friends once, but they melted away. Things are different now I am a MONSTER’ Frances is alone. Cast away on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, she has to find water, food and shelter. But survival is hard. Especially when she is haunted by memories of the things that she did before, the things that made her a monster. Pushed to the limit in extreme conditions, she battles to come to terms with her past, and find a future worth fighting for. This is a gripping and thought-provoking story about one girl’s journey to become the person she believes she can be.

2010. Belfast seems quiet, but unrest is simmering beneath the tranquil surface. Several dissident republican movements are harbouring resentment since the IRAs disarmament and the most dangerous is a group calling themselves Freedom for Ireland. The British Prime Minister is worried that the fragile peace accord could be shattered if unrest is allowed to burgeon and calls in his top security advisors. A covert operation is set in place, three members of the SAS are recruited and after ten months of blending into the Belfast community, they are activated. James Fitzpatrick, grandson of a murdered RUC Chief Constable, chooses the wrong time for a holiday in Ireland. Freedom for Ireland waste no time seizing a valuable bargaining tool and kidnap the young man without a hitch, negotiations for terms of his release begin. But one of the kidnappers has a change of heart seeing the brutal and sadistic treatment of James. Unexpected events lead to a cocktail of mixed emotions and loyalties that explode in a last minute bloodbath.