A coming-of-age story of an American Jew and aspiring writer in the '60s and '70s. In this memoir in six movements, Alan Shapiro recalls how poetry helped him make sense of his own and other people's lives.

From menopause to moving in, from losing weight to starting a business, this organized book is filled with 1,500 quotations that capture the mundane and the magnificent and covers 150 occasions.

The urgent phone call comes from behind the barbed wire. 'This is Ayalon prison,' says one of the guards urgently. 'Listen, he hanged himself, we need an ambulance.' Prisoner X, just 34 years old, was slumped in a small bathroom, separated from his cell by a transparent door. Kept in one of the most technologically sophisticated solitary jail cells, at the behest of one of the world's most feared intelligence agencies, it is not easy to kill yourself. But Ben Zygier managed to do just that. Did he work for Mossad? Was he also working for ASIO? Was he involved in the supply of false passports? Was he a whistle blower or double agent, or simply a young man way out of his depth? In Prisoner X Rafael Epstein uncovers the intriguing story of a young Australian swept up in international intelligence.

The thousands of mourners who lined Wajid Ali Shah’s funeral route on 21 September, 1887, with their loud wailing and shouted prayers, were not only marking the passing of the last king but also the passing of an intangible connection to old India, before the Europeans came. This is the story of a man whose memory continues to divide opinion today. Was Wajid Ali Shah, as the British believed, a debauched ruler who spent his time with fiddlers, eunuchs and fairies, when he should have been running his kingdom? Or, as a few Indians remember him, a talented poet whose songs are still sung today, and who was robbed of his throne by the English East India Company? Somewhere between these two extremes lies a gifted, but difficult, character; a man who married more women than there are days in the year; who directed theatrical extravaganzas that took over a month to perform, and who built a fairytale palace in Lucknow, which was inhabited for less than a decade. He remained a constant thorn in the side of the ruling British government with his extravagance, his menagerie and his wives. Even so, there was something rather heroic about a man who refused to bow to changing times, and who single-handedly endeavoured to preserve the etiquette and customs of the great Mughals well into the period of the British Raj. India’s last king Wajid Ali Shah was written out of the history books when Awadh was annexed by the Company in February 1856. After long years of painstaking research, noted historian Rosie Llewellyn-Jones revives his memory and returns him his rightful place as one of India’s last great rulers.

Tells the fascinating story of the composer's rise to prominence. Also a social history, charting the rise of modernism in Australian music through the eyes of its key player.

In his sixth book of poems, Alan Shapiro once again shows that he is a master at articulating the secrets of the heart. The Dead Alive and Busy deals with issues of personal identity as revealed through examining the intimate bonds of family life. The poems explore these familial relations in terms of the religious, social, and literary contexts that inform them, delving into such universal themes as human frailty, illness and death, bereavement, and thwarted desires. By turns lyrical and narrative, slangy and elevated, analytical and visionary, this collection showcases one of America's most important poets in his top form. Praise for Alan Shapiro: "Shapiro is a shrewd and sympathetic moralist. He never trivializes his subjects with high-minded flourishes or stylistic gimmicks."—J. D. McClatchy, New York Times Book Review

The need for churches and other faith communities to reach out and care for those suffering with depression has never been greater. Depression is now recognized as one of our most serious public health concerns. Each year more than ten percent of American adults experience a major depressive episode, and more than twenty percent will experience at least one episode over their lifetime. Furthermore, we know that depression is the major risk factor for suicide, now the second leading cause of death in the 10 – 34 year old age group and the fourth leading cause of death among adults ages 35 – 54. We also know that depression is a significant risk factor for substance abuse, another of our most serious health concerns. While we might want to believe that our religious faith can protect us from depression and suicide, we know that’s not true. We have heard too many stories of religious leaders and members of deeply religious families who have suffered from depression and taken their own lives. We need to recognize that no group is exempt from this terrible illness. Depression is found among the young and old, the religious and nonreligious, and all ethnic and racial groups. In Depression - Out of the Darkness and Into the Light, Dan Hale, a psychologist and national leader in health ministries, draws on his own his own struggles with depression, his work as a psychotherapist, and his experiences as a father who lost a daughter to depression, to offer guidance for individuals and families impacted by depression and for congregations that recognize the importance of ministering to those suffering from this terrible illness.