"For forty years, Samuel Hazo has written a poetry of the world exactly as he sees it: a place where struggles between family members, friends, and nations are endured and sometimes settled by calm assurance; where art and the pursuit of one's talents require a special kind of bravery; where change - the birth of a child, the passing of friends, the death of heroes - is a constant to be solemnly honored and often celebrated." "From his first book, through the National Book Award finalist Once for the Last Bandit, to his newest poems, Hazo's themes have remained consistent. With each collection he wonders anew at the persistence of mortality in the midst of vibrant living and of love in all our relations. In this lithe, metrical lines, he writes with equal ease of Geneva, Switzerland, or Johnstown, Pennsylvania; of the matador Manolete in his dying moments or the innocent eyes of an eleven-year-old son; of the rewards of creating great art or the frustrations and joys of driving a Roosevelt Coupe. With The Holy Surprise of Right Now, Hazo gives his readers a powerful summation of his work to date."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From his first book, through the National Book Award finalist Once for the Last Bandit, to his newest poems, Samuel Hazo has written poetry that celebrates and solemnly honors art and mortality in the midst of vibrant living and the value of love in all our relations.

When Gilda Joyce's mother announces her engagement to a man from St. Augustine, Florida, Gilda is appalled. She hasn't even given him the "Joyce Family Application" yet! But as the wedding preparations get under way, Gilda realizes she has much bigger concerns. Why does her soon-to-be stepdad keep calling Mrs. Joyce by his ex-wife's name? And why is Mrs. Joyce acting like she's possessed? With only a few short days before her mother says "I do," Gilda knows this much for sure: it's going to take every ounce of her sleuthing skill and psychic savvy to solve this one!

Writing with fierce honesty, Jennifer Miller has created an extraordinary synthesis of history, reportage, and coming-of-age memoir in Inheriting the Holy Land. Her groundbreaking perspective on the conflict is presented through interviews with young Israelis and Palestinians and conversations with some of the most influential officials involved in the Middle East, including Shimon Peres, Yasir Arafat, James Baker, Benjamin Netanyahu, Colin Powell, Ehud Barak, and Mahmoud Abbas. This book will open eyes, open hearts, and open minds. Miller grew up in an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., surrounded by the chaotic politics of the Middle East. Her father was a U.S. State Department negotiator at the Oslo and Camp David peace summits, and dinnertime conversation in the Miller household often included discussions of the Middle Eastern conflict. When Miller joined Seeds of Peace, a program that brings Middle Eastern kids to Maine for intensive sessions of conflict resolution, her real experience with the Middle East began. As she befriended young Palestinians, Israelis, Egyptians, and Jordanians, Jennifer came to realize that their views were missing from the ongoing debate over the Holy Land. By helping these young voices be heard, she knew she could reveal something vitally new and deeply challenging about the future of this torn region. Miller, however, learned fast that it was one thing to hang out at the idyllic Seeds for Peace camp in Maine and quite another to confront young people on their own turf-in the alleys of East Jerusalem, behind the armed gates of West Bank settlements, in the teeming refugee camps of Gaza. Friendships that had blossomed in the United States withered in the aftermath of yet another suicide bombing. Big-hearted teens on both sides of the conflict shocked Miller with the ferocity of their illusions and the twisted logic of their misconceptions. But she also found rays of hope in places where others had reported only despair-surprising open-mindedness among the ultra-religious, common ground shared by those who had lost loved ones to the violence, a yearning for peace amid the rubble of refugee camps and the shards of bombed cities. A deft writer, she interweaves her startlingly candid interviews with the vibrant realities of life in the streets. Just as Jennifer Miller was forced to confront her biases as an American, a Jew, a woman, and a journalist, in Inheriting the Holy Land, she similarly challenges readers to reexamine their own cherished prejudices and assumptions.