"Alabanza" means "praise" in Spanish, and Espada praises the people Whitman called "them the others are down upon": the African slaves who brought their music to Puerto Rico; a prison inmate provoking brawls so he could write poetry in solitary confinement; a janitor and his solitary strike; Espada's own father, who was jailed in Mississippi for refusing to go to the back of the bus. The poet bears witness to death and rebirth at the ruins of a famine village in Ireland, a town plaza in México welcoming a march of Zapatista rebels, and the courtroom where he worked as a tenant lawyer. The title poem pays homage to the immigrant food-service workers who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center. From the earliest out-of-print work to the seventeen new poems included here, Espada celebrates the American political imagination and the resilience of human dignity. Alabanza is the epic vision of a writer who, in the words of Russell Banks, "is one of the handful of American poets who are forging a new American language, one that tells the unwritten history of the continent, speaks truth to power, and sings songs of selves we can no longer silence." An American Library Association Notable Book of 2003 and a 2003 New York Public Library Book to Remember."To read this work is to be struck breathless, and surely, to come away changed."—Barbara Kingsolver "Martín Espada is the Pablo Neruda of North American authors. If it was up to me, I'd select him as the Poet Laureate of the United States."—Sandra Cisneros "With these new and selected poems, you can grasp how powerful a poet Espada is—his range, his compassion, his astonishing images, his sense of history, his knowledge of the lives on the underbelly of cities, his bright anger, his tenderness, his humor. "—Marge Piercy "Espada's poems are not just clarion calls to the heart and conscience, but also wonderfully crafted gems."—Julia Alvarez "A passionate, readable poetry that makes [Espada] arguably the most important 'minority' U.S. poet since Langston Hughes."—Booklist"Neruda is dead, but if Alabanza is any clue, his ghost lives through a poet named Martín Espada."—San Francisco Chronicle

    Political and iconoclastic, Anne Boyer’s poems dally in pastoral camp and a dizzying, delightful array of sights and sounds born from the dust of the Kansas plains where dinner for two is cooked in Fire King and served on depression ware, and where bawdy instructions for a modern “Home on the Range” read:Mix a drink of stock lot:vermouth and the water table.And the bar will smell of IBP.And you will lick my Laura Ingalls.In Boyer’s heartland, “Surfaces should be worn. Lamps should smolder. / Dahlias do bloom like tumors. The birds do rise like bombs.” And the once bright and now crumbling populism of Marxists, poets, and folksingers springs vividly back to life as realism, idealism, and nostalgia do battle amongst the silos and ditchweed.Nothing, too, is a subject:dusk regulating the blankery.Fill in the nightish sky with ardent,fill in the metaphorical smell.A poet and visual artist, Anne Boyer lives in Kansas, where she co-edits the poetry journal Abraham Lincoln and teaches at Kansas City Art Institute.

    Keece and Paris are in marital bliss with a little one on the way. Keece is finally content with his life. That is until it is revealed that he may have already fathered a child. Keece is livid, and the only person with the answers to his questions is Riley, who finds another possible way to stay in his life, but will it cost Keece his marriage?Shymar is released from jail with one thing on his mind, and that is revenge. Hearing his girlfriend, Alyssa, fight for her life leaves Shymar feeling crushed and angry. Shymar is itching to know the whereabouts of Alyssa, and only one person that can give it to him is Keece.Will Keece dodge yet another bullet from Riley and be able to keep Paris in his life? Will Shymar catch up to Keece and avenge Alyssa’s death? Follow this riveting drama to see who will be the last one standing.

    Ashleigh is madly in love with the potential she once saw in her boyfriend, Dre. It's no secret that everyone doesn't live up to their potential and he proves that true. Amanda was shown love in its purest form only for life to shuffle the deck and deal her a losing hand. They say time heals all things but the lost of her first love still haunts her years later. When life proves to be too much the duo decides to skip town for a change of scenery. Twin brothers, Harlem and Houston have quickly made a name for themselves in the streets of New York. Running the streets leave little time for love so running into Amanda and Ashleigh was something neither men expected but was surely welcomed. An unplanned 7 day vacation and a chance encounter changes the way these women think when it comes to men. Is less than a week enough for Houston and Harlem to sweep these feisty women off of their feet? Will Amanda finally try love for a second go round? Will Ashleigh finally accept the love that she deserves?

     Naeem Black is the controlled, reserved, dangerously alluring and handsome businessman who makes it his personal mission to see Emory out of her state of depression. He lives his life without much chaos and with strict order. Until she unknowingly and almost innocently takes ahold of his heart and doesn’t let go. Damsel in Distress Knight in Shining Armor The tale of love we all are so familiar with.... But love isn't easy. Over-coming insecurities isn't easy. Allowing someone to love you, especially the broken parts of you is scary. And loving someone who is broken can prove to be difficult. With the odds not in their favor, what will prevail? Fight or Flight? Mercy Boutchat is the wild child with a even wilder heart. With no plans of settling down any time soon, she embarks on what is supposed to a situationship filled with insatiable lust and spontaneous combustions of pleasure...That is, until unexpected feelings get involved and she finds herself agreeing to the one thing she swore to never get involved in; Commitment. And with the one person who is mentally, her equal and physically attractive as she is... Leilani Elaine Mercer is finally living her fairytale. Her man is out of the streets. Her babies are on their way and she is finally going to get her event planning company going. In the midst of her happiness, the bearer of bad news dons her doorstep. Secrets are revealed. Loyalties are questioned and everything her and Malakhi worked so hard to build can come crashing down with one wrong explanation... Ain't Gonna Let You II is the highly anticipated sequel to The Prelude. Between these pages you find out there is growth, in love and trust where you least expect it.

    

    The love is stronger and the bonds they have for one another are tighter, yet drama still follows them. Kenya is back to get her revenge on Briana and she'll do whatever it takes to make Adonis want her. Loyalty is tested and lines are crossed– will the couples fight till the end or will their bonds be broken forever? A Kingpins Dream 2: Forever ain't enough

    Add a mother who's back on the run from the Federal Government for a murder of a undercover agent that has been her right hand for years, along with the family main henchman Papa Bear who's now her mysterious lover. Amil Walker has set it in stone that she's definitely the head of the throne and will do whatever it takes to keep her family and their multi-million dollar empire secure. Amil has cut all ties with the Colombian Cartel and with a stroke of good luck she bounces back even stronger with a bigger and better plug with the Arabians in Dubai. And with the Feds still hot on the Walker family trail, who knows what will happen next. Will Amil sacrifice herself to save her family or will she pull the ultimate betrayal? Something that she's been known to do in the past.

    When Wise is locked up and sentenced to fifteen years, he tells Emery to go on with her life if it’s meant to be they would get back together. Now years later Emery is happy with a career and family of her own, when Wise is released earlier than expected he sets off to do what he said he was going to do, find Emery. Emery’s heart belongs to Wise but it also belongs to her husband. Now she is forced with the hard decision to choose between the man who was there with her from the start through everything and the man who picked her up when she didn’t have anything or anybody. Who will Emery choose? Filled with sex, betrayal and drama

    

    At the tender age of eight, her mother sold her to men in order to supply her drug habit. After her mother overdosed, Brandy was sent to live with the father she never knew, who promised to give her the world, only to rape her and put her out on the track.While working one night, she meets a gentleman who changes her life and makes her believe that someone finally has her best interest at heart. Soon after falling in love with her savior, she finds out that he’s not the man she thought he was. Fed up with being lied to and used, Brandy vows to never again let another person get close enough to hurt her. Revenge leading to a stacked bank account isn’t enough—she wants more.Coming up with scheme after scheme, Brandy steps on quite a few toes. While doing that, she begins to make enemies along the way; some chalking up their losses, while others want payback in blood. Take this journey filled with drama, sex and lies with Brandy, and see if being Heartless brings her a life of wealth or death.

    However, she didn’t count on falling for the youngest of the clan, Hawk Pattel. Hawk is wealthy, handsome, intelligent and charming. Raven tries to resist him, but when a Pattel wants something, nothing will stand in his way. Just when Hawk is on the verge of convincing Raven that the two of them could have something special, something real, all of his skeletons start falling out of the closet, one ugly bone at a time. Self-preservation takes over for Raven, and the only thing she can do is run. But Hawk is determined not to give up. He’ll break down the walls she’s had time to rebuild one brick at a time if he has to. However, old hurts and secrets are revealed that will test Hawk and Raven beyond anything they’ve come up against. Will they be strong enough to withstand a storm a second time? The Pattels: Hawk and Raven II is the continuation of the first book in the hot new series by National Best Selling author S.K. Hardy. It’s sexy, thrilling, and intriguing, all of the elements that S.K. is known for. This exciting saga is a story that will engage every one of your emotions: anger, happiness, laughter, and fear. The Pattels is a spin off of S.K.’s previous bestseller, The Sin City Heat Series. However, it is not necessary to have read Sin City Heat in order to start this new series. **Warning: This book is an erotic romance novel. It contains strong sexual language and themes that is not appropriate for anyone under the age of 18.

    His love for Ocean and the news of the baby they created may be the only thing that will save her life but will it be enough to save what they’re trying to build? Sony and River just can’t seem to get it together and the back and forth between the two is stopping anything that they’re trying to develop. Ivanka is trying her best to make herself relevant in Sony’s life but her constant run ins with River’s savvy banter is stopping her at every corner. With their past in the way can the two come together and be what they both desire? After everything that Cherice has been through, she again finds herself in a situation where she has to choose between the man in her life and her family. Unbeknownst to Cherice, Bryce has an ulterior motive that may cause her to lose everything. Will she be able to see past his deception or will she once again fall victim to love? With new threats on the rise and old snakes still lingering, will the Sharp brothers be able to hold their reigns in the streets and keep the women they love safe? Or will they get sucked up in the world of being a Carolina Hustla?

    These poems bear witness to survival in the face of brutality, while also elegizing two brothers haunted by shame, two lovers hounded by death, and an America wounded by war and numbered by religion. Brown summons myth, fable, and fairytale not to merely revise the Bible—more so to write the kind of lyric poetry we find at the source of redemption—for the profane and for the sacred.

    These jeweled, intricate poems, like the multilayered "In Search of Evanescence," locate and reflect the America that must be "unseen to be believed."Somewhere between cartographer and stargazer, the Nostalgist links images of water, desert, and myth, returning to Tucson in the monsoons, or seeing Chile in his rearview mirror, all the while creating an intense and vital vision.