Bookshelf

(Louisville, Ky.: Sarabande Books, 2021)

Winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, and boasting a 2020 Pushcart-winning story, this collection of 13 tales is described as “part domestic horror, part flyover gothic.” Collins’ characters — including a young woman who must give birth to future iterations of herself; a widower who kills a horse en route to his grandson’s circumcision; a summer camper who is haunted by a glass eye and motorcycle crash — must choose to fight or flee the “big bad” that dwells within us all.

(Seattle: Marrowstone Press, 2020).
The prolific poet has given us another collection, this one described as one book of poems composed of two. According to the publisher: “Its epigraph is taken from the English Romantic poet, John Clare: to ‘turn the blue blinders of the heavens aside/To see what gods are doing.’ In Weltner’s book, the gods are such fundamental powers and presences as the past, memory, human existence in place and time, passion in all its senses, and what glimpses of transcendence humanity is allowed to see. It is a poetry of quest and questioning, of a late life looking back, of form and freedom pondering those essential things long pondered before us.”

(New York and London: Routledge, 2021).
This volume focuses on teaching classics in a prison setting and features articles that examine how incarcerated adults read and discuss classical texts and the best pedagogical practices for teaching within a prison.

(self-published, 2019)

Focusing on the plight of Cavaar, a 9-year-old street urchin, and Alera, a young noblewoman longing for a life of freedom from her abusive father, this novel is the first in an original character-driven fantasy series about confronting darkness within and without.

(Scotts Valley, Calif.: CreateSpace, 2020).
Technology growth, cultural divides, and a hyper-paced world are creating confusion, fear, and separation in our society. So maintains the author, who has led global tech human resource teams with the goal of enabling individuals to prosper so companies can prosper. In his book, he looks at such questions as “How do we understand that we have more in common than not?” and “What can each of us do to heal differences while leaving a meaningful, personal legacy?”

(Boston: Everidge Press, 2019)
A murder mystery combines with a story of heroism and betrayal — all taking place in Boston’s old South End. The author invites readers to travel back in time as he explores life in the rented rooms and funky old bars of a dying neighborhood.

(Winchester, United Kingdom: Business Books, 2021).
The author, a third-generation co-owner of a plastic bag manufacturing company, takes readers along on his journey to eight states, three national parks, and three countries as he experiences the life-changing education and adventures that led him to finding sustainability for his business and himself. The book won a Gold Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association.

(New York and London: Routledge, 2021).
The publisher describes the book as, “An interdisciplinary, themed anthology that focuses on how comics have played a crucial role in representing, constructing, and reifying the immigrant subject and the immigrant experience in popular global culture of the 20th and 21st centuries.” Serrano, who contributed a chapter and the introduction, said her goal was to be global in scope, from the Jewish American experience to Algerian immigration to X-Men to the Latino experience.

(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2020).
Having retired after 45 years of university teaching, the author has released his 12th scholarly book, one in which he discusses U.S. policies toward Latin America during a critical period of the Cold War. One reviewer noted that he “proves tough but fair. He pulls no punches against Kissinger’s vicious support for dictators. Yet Rabe also appreciates the former secretary of state’s open-mindedness on issues ranging from economics to the Panama Canal.”

(Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2021)
These microstories explore the pitfalls and triumphs of dating as a millennial. Part I (portions of which take place at Hamilton) introduces readers to a college relationship that stretches from New York City to Texas and rips apart. “Part II is what happens after — the gritty, lonely, and sometimes dazzling world of dating in New York City: fix-ups, first dates, third dates, many, many Bumble dates, one terrible Tinder date, the often strangeness of two strangers, the often thrill of two strangers, and even one glorious cab driver who doubles as a love psychic,” the publisher noted.