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Recommended Books & Publications

CHIMERA 
BY BRAD BUCHANAN

Few people have survived the nightmare of a stem cell transplant gone sideways. Fewer still have had the audacity to write poetry about the miraculous yet bewildering experience of becoming a genetic chimera.

 

Brad Buchanan breaks this taboo and offers us eloquent, surrealistic, and profoundly moving lyrics about his dramatic transformation and amazing recovery. The result is CHIMERA, one book of poetry you will never forget.

Price: US$19.99 (Paperback) 

Available on Finishing Line Press 

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CROSS SECTIONS: A POETRY COLLECTION 
BY MATT SCHUR

"Cross Sections is a powerful book of poetry-as-prayers weaving together Christian imagery, tradition, progressive theology, and fresh vision. For those of us familiar with scripture, especially, Schur's words challenge us to boldly and tenderly engage some of the verses and stories that are so familiar to us that they have otherwise gone stale in our hearts. Cross Sections gives space to all human emotions on both the individual and communal level, and reminds us of the holiness of our own experiences with lament, questions, rage, and doubt." - Elle Dowd (she/her), activist and ELCA candidate for ministry, author of Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist

Price: US$9.99 (Kindle), US$ 14.95 (Paperback) 

Available on Amazon

Currently on sale for $5.60

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LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID
BY VALIANT SCRIBE LITERARY JOURNAL

In a span of a few months, life, as we knew it was upended as humanity tried to and continues to cope with the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. In these times of economic, and medical upheaval, of quarantine, and self-isolation, of fear, and faith, the maiden issue of Valiant Scribe explores the experiences of people from around the world and from different walks of life.


The collection of essays, flash fiction, non-fiction, and poetry tell a compelling story of our shared humanity and how we have each made the best of this situation.


Themes of courage, strength, kindness, reinvention, become evident amidst moments of loss and grief. The importance of mental health can easily be surmised from the narrative of many of the authors as well as a profound hope for the future.

Price: US$ 24.99 (Paperback)

Available on Amazon

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SANDPAPER TONGUE, PARCHMENT LIPS
BY MELANIE HYO-IN HAN.

Melanie Hyo-In Han's first poetry chapbook, Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips, is a collection of poetry based on her experiences as a TCK (Third Culture Kid) growing up in East Africa and facing struggles around identity and racism, as well as cultural and linguistic barriers between her and her family.

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As a TCK (Third Culture Kid), the inspiration behind her poetry comes from her own childhood experiences and an exploration of identity, belonging, and culture through the use of fragmented form and inclusion of multiple languages. She also writes nonfiction and does translation work between English, Spanish, and Korean. During her free time, Han enjoys visiting new countries and trying different ethnic foods with her husband.

Price: US$ 14.99 (Paperback)

Available on FinishingLinePress

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SOD ’EM – AND TOMORROW
BY DES MANNAY.

Des Mannay’s debut poetry collection explodes with a ferociously tender no to a country managing cruelty and normalising a world where the poor and sick are genteelly disappeared. Mannay’s greatest poetry, like ‘And the Dead Shall Rise’, emerges through many histories deep to blast elegy through the mine-buried, torn up by fracking. This is the real right thing.

Price: GBP 12.00 (Paperback)

Available on Waterloo Press

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DANCING AROUND THE TRUTH

BY CHRISTINE JACOBSEN

In the winter of 2016, after sending her DNA to Ancestry.com to be tested, Christine Jacobsen confirmed the secret her mother had half-revealed fifty years earlier: The White man who had raised her was not her biological father. Christine was not of full Danish descent after all. Instead, she discovered that a quarter of the blood flowing through her veins is West African. Her sense of self immediately crumbled. Who was she? Who was her biological father? Did the father who raised her, now deceased, know about this? Her search for identity led her to a Black dancer from the Bahamas. In fact, it led her to two Black dancers – her father and grandfather. In Dancing Around the Truth, the author grapples with questions about race, her family, and a sense of belonging. It’s the story of her quest to find her ancestral roots. And it’s the story about a White woman’s reckoning with the Black part of herself.

Price: US$ 5.19 (Kindle), US$ 12.99 (Paperback)

Available on Amazon

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BEGIN WITH A QUESTION 
BY MARJORIE MADDOX

Begin with a Question explores how the life of faith is a continuous voyage, launched anew each bright day of the spirit or dark night of the soul. This is a book of contemplation and motion, a journey—often in stops and starts—toward the Divine, a pilgrimage paved with prayer, praise, pause, penitence, and (of course) questions. Urgent and universal, joyful or joyless, tinged with doubt or rinsed with hope, here are honest queries that probe, lift, and lead to discovery. Begin with a Question keeps us moving, seeking, reaching, lifting us out of ourselves to something beyond. Using a variety of fixed forms and free verse, the poet examines our relationship to the one who asks, “Who do you say that I am?” A book for seekers, doubters, and believers alike, these poems bring us face to face with anguish, anger, awe, and adoration. They give us permission not to demand answers, but to follow the questions that lead to the Alpha and Omega, to the I AM that keeps us spiraling along this twisting path toward God.

Price: US$9.99 (Kindle), US$20.00 (Paperback) 

Available on Amazon and Paraclete Press

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POWDER NECKLACE: A NOVEL

BY NANA EKUA BREW-HAMMOND

To protect her daughter from the fast life and bad influences of London, her mother sent her to school in rural Ghana. The move was for the girl’s own good, in her mother’s mind, but for the daughter, the reality of being the new girl, the foreigner-among-your-own-people, was even worse than the idea.

During her time at school, she would learn that Ghana was much more complicated than her fellow ex-pats had ever told her, including how much a London-raised child takes something like water for granted. In Ghana, water “became a symbol of who had and who didn’t, who believed in God and who didn’t. If you didn’t have water to bathe, you were poor because no one had sent you some.”

Price: US$ 14.99 (Kindle), US$ 19.99 (Paperback)

Available on Amazon

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VULTURES AND DOVES: SOCIAL ISSUES OF OUR TIME
BY VALIANT SCRIBE LITERARY JOURNAL

The collection explores the theme of vultures and doves from the contexts of war and peace, and despair and hope in a world filled with conflict, poverty, natural disasters, human rights violations, and other ills.

This issue presents poetry that encourages deep reflection on the condition of our world and evokes thoughts of hope, telling us there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Price: US$9.99 (Kindle) US$16.99 (Paperback)

Available on Amazon

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AWAITING DAWN: ECHOES OF A HAUNTED SOUL

BY DEBRA AYIS

A contemporary collection of poetry in question of our existence.

'Awaiting Dawn: Echoes of a Haunted Soul' is a mix of everything that keeps our hearts beating and our souls alive. It touches on existential issues that pervade society, from depression and loneliness to the joys of self-discovery and starting afresh. It looks at hope and contentment while challenging us to be unsatisfied with the status quo. 


It tackles social justice issues briefly by investigating themes of education for girls (gender parity), sexual violence, migration, incarceration, disaster, and poverty while exploring the evolving landscape of women’s empowerment in today's world. It also seeks to explore our responsibility to mother earth and delve into our relationship with the creator.

Price: US$ 9.99 

Available on Amazon

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THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES: A COLLECTION OF POETRY

BY DEBRA AYIS

'Thoughts and Memories' is an eclectic collection of poems. The collection reflects the yearning of the Christian heart and the struggles a believer encounters on a day to day basis. These are poems of encouragement and poems as prayers. It calls to believers and non-believers alike to dive deeper into their relationship with the creator.

Though most of these poems were originally written for an African audience – Nigerian to be specific, nonetheless, this book has a poem for everyone; it crosses cultural barriers by bringing to life the realities we face every day and the circumstances constantly surrounding us as individuals.

Price: US$ 9.99

Available on Amazon

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