A hotbed for hip hop, underground culture, and unmatched creative energy, it spawned some of the most significant art of the 20th century. It was where Jean-Michel Basquiat became an avant-garde street artist and painter, swiftly achieving worldwide fame. During the years before his death at the age of 27, he shared his life with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk. A runaway from an unhappy home in Canada, Suzanne first met Jean-Michel in a bar on the Lower East Side in 1980. Thus began a tumultuous and passionate relationship that deeply influenced one of the most exceptional artists of our time. In emotionally resonant prose, award-winning author Jennifer Clement tells the story of the passion that swept Suzanne and Jean-Michel into a short-lived, unforgettable affair. A poetic interpretation like no other, Widow Basquiat is an expression of the unrelenting power of addiction, obsession and love.

    frequently anthologized poem

    Sink asks and answers hard questions about grief, lineage, death and all manner of inheritance. What is one left with when they come from a family that has nothing to its name but loss? Throughout, Dallagiacomo weighs the cost of what it is to be alive and a woman in a landscape that makes being alive and a woman uninviting. Sink approaches grief and depression not as a tourist, but instead with the power and nuance of someone who has survived and made the most of their survival.

    They’d never met, but it was fate that drew them together when he saved her life.Now, one year later and days away from their wedding, disasters begin to strike in tandem, threatening to ruin the entire day. Jacob and Jackie work tirelessly to put out one fire after another, wondering if these catastrophes and mishaps are a sign from the universe that perhaps they aren't meant to be after all.Does true love really conquer all or are curses just not meant to be broken?Adriana Locke - CrushDelaney McCallister isn’t looking for a date. She just wants clean pajamas so she can go back home, flop on the couch, and relax. As the spin cycle begins, in walks the most delectable man she’s ever seen—one that clearly doesn’t belong in her small town. She doesn’t belong in his bed, either, but a simple little crush never hurt anyone.Shari J. Ryan - Love, RoseI didn’t want Frankie back. I didn’t want him to stay, but I wanted him to know how much I loved him, why I loved him, and what I would have done to make him happy. Through letter after letter, I poured my heart and soul onto paper and mailed them.The letters never made it to Frankie. Frankie moved away, but a new man moved into his old place. His name was Colton, and he was the one who received all my letters.When Colton wrote back, he told me my words changed his life. He wanted to meet me.I didn’t know that meeting Colton would also change my life.Julie A. Richman - ReunionTwo high school besties.Two ex-boyfriends.A 10-year high school reunion.An unexpected surprise revealing a long-kept secretThere are just some nights you’ll never forget...HJ Bellus - Coming HomeThe My Way Gang is back together. Annie has news to break to her dad, Cree. Life on the farm will never be the same.Sam JD Hunt - Roses for RachelMajor Jonah “Whaler” Jones is at rock bottom. After losing his wife in a tragic accident that he’ll never forgive himself for, the once elite fighter pilot is ready to end it all. But one sweltering Vegas morning, a voice from beyond changes the trajectory of his life.“Wake up, Jonah, and go get my roses,” she says.On a hungover quest to fulfill his dead wife’s request, he stumbles upon Hannah Green. A struggling widow, Hannah fills her days crafting copper roses. Although he vowed to never love again, Jonah knows that his beloved Rachel came to him that morning with a purpose; and that purpose was Hannah.Tara Leigh - Finley and Sebastián, Wages of Sin seriesIt’s a steamy summer in New York City,and the newest couple in the Wages of Sinseries is burning up the pages.With Aislinn and Damon away,Finley and Sebastián will play.Let the games begin.Kaylee Ryan - Whiskey & RosesYou met Rhett and Saylor in Hey, Whiskey.My outlook on life has changed in the last fifteen years. I now have a husband and a family I can lean on. I’ve paved my own path, but they’ve traveled it with me.Not a single day have I regretted my choice to make this small town in West Virginia my home. We’ve built a life here and raised our kids here.Now here we are fifteen years later, and I’m about to show my wife that even after all these years, she’s all I see.Michelle Dare - Where I EscapeYou never know where your life will lead. Mine led me to a man who abused me. Who hurt me. Who destroyed everything I was. I never thought I’d be whole again.Love is something my friends have, not me. I thought it was unattainable. Until I met Finn.He knows of my past. He’s held me through my nightmares. I’ve never met someone so kind and patient.Where I escape is into the arms of Finn where everything in my world finally feels right again.Haylee Thorne - Capturing TomorrowBachelorette party shenanigans planned √Hotel suites booked √Invites sent √Jet fueled √Have all your plans go to hell√Phoenix Kingsley is about to find out that sometimes even the best laid out plans fall apart…and it’s not always a bad thing…Michelle Windsor - Coming Up RosesFive long hours in flight.Four cocktails in.Three little words.Two strangers in first class.One unexpected connection.Buckle up and prepare for takeoff as Griffin Harrison and Chloe Adams find themselves encountering more than turbulence on their way to New York City. Make sure your tray tables are locked and in their upright position, cause things are gonna get bumpy.Verlene Landon - LINE 39Lena gave up on life and abandoned her dreams of a happily-ever-after when a freak accident took her eye, most of her vision, and left her scarred. Her only reason for living now is to make her terminally-ill father believe otherwise.Rue is blinded by the beauty of Casterton’s newest resident, but he can’t work up the nerve to approach her. Sadly, he notices her leaving Carol’s every week with a bouquet of flowers from someone who obviously has the courage he lacks.Lucky for them, a happy-go-lucky golden retriever puppy helps them both to see what’s right in front of their faces.Kristin Mayer - Mine to ProtectAustin and Scarlette come together in a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very end.MJ Fields - The Way We FellBen and Kendall, part one.(Brand new part of the Legacy world)One brilliant smile, and my heart beat for what felt like the very first time.One night as he held my sister and sang to her, it broke.Years later, his smile is different, and I curse my heart when it beats in an all too familiar way, a way it’s only ever beat for him... again.He was once hers, could he ever truly be mine?Rebecca Brooke - Ring MeI am not a bully.At least not anymore. I’d learned my lesson even before I had all my dreams ripped away.Then I saw her. I knew I wanted her to be mine.I made so many mistakes, but she let me in and gave me her heart.Now I want to keep it forever.How do I ask the woman of my dreams to spend the rest of her life with me? Simple, just ask.At least I thought it would be that easy.

    What the Living Do reflects "a new form of confessional poetry, one shared to some degree by other women poets such as Sharon Olds and Jane Kenyon. Unlike the earlier confessional poetry of Plath, Lowell, Sexton et al., Howe's writing is not so much a moan or a shriek as a song. It is a genuinely feminine form . . . a poetry of intimacy, witness, honesty, and relation" (Boston Globe).

    These poems are loose enough for the reader to flop down inside and stay awhile. They are plangent, personal, confessional, noisy, nostalgic, and maybe a little bit broken. They often contain boats and travel and Toronto (street names and railroad tracks, dives and parks and kitchens) because those are the sorts of things Eva H.D. is drawn to. In Rotten Perfect Mouth, readers will discover a writer with her heart on her sleeve and her hand on her pen, capturing the world around her with vibrant immediacy.

    Picking up the trail in Moscow, he ventures south to the post Soviet depths of Rostov-on-Don and further into the hinterlands of the fragmented Soviet Union, where he is led deeper into the tangled fate of his oldest friend. Uncovering hidden characteristics and unexpected motives, Frederick fears that his friend, presumed dead, has been caught up in a tragic sequence of events leading to his destruction. As a rite of passage, a journey of discovery, a travelogue and a psychological portrait of friendship, the novel draws the reader into the hidden world of being which beats beneath the semblance of reality.

    When we reach the camp, there will be thousands like us.If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roadsand waiting pastures of America. We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffaloas we used to many years ago, nor will we foragefor the sweetest mangoes. I am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep.—from “Transmigration”Afterland is a powerful, essential collection of poetry that recounts with devastating detail the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Mai Der Vang is telling the story of her own family, and by doing so, she also provides an essential history of the Hmong culture’s ongoing resilience in exile. Many of these poems are written in the voices of those fleeing unbearable violence after U.S. forces recruited Hmong fighters in Laos in the Secret War against communism, only to abandon them after that war went awry. That history is little known or understood, but the three hundred thousand Hmong now living in the United States are living proof of its aftermath. With poems of extraordinary force and grace, Afterland holds an original place in American poetry and lands with a sense of humanity saved, of outrage, of a deep tradition broken by war and ocean but still intact, remembered, and lived.

    Here is the green and carefree world of a boy who delights in the possibilities of each day, of a child who wrings from every moment a feeling as intensely magical as it is profoundly innocent.

    Stabilize the family bakery business following the death of my father, and then get back to the city. It would have gone flawlessly had I not run smack dab into Hadley Hutton on my first night back. That spit-fire competitive girl was my college nemesis, always one-upping me, until she mysteriously didn’t return for our senior year.So, imagine my surprise when I’m introduced to the bakery’s newest manager and it’s her! Now I have to work closely with her nearly everyday. Words fly and tempers flare between us, just like they did in college, except something is different about her now. There’s more to Hadley Hutton than her sweet looks and salty attitude.Maybe if I can figure her out, she’ll see I’m not the jerk she thinks I am.Or maybe I’m just creating a recipe for disaster.This book is a full-length interconnected standalone! The books in the Bardstown series can be read in any order as each one features a different brother in the Fox family. These books are adult in nature and should only be read by those 18+ years old.

    In 1918, she won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize (which became the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry) and the Poetry Society of America Prize for Love Songs. She later committed suicide. In addition to new poems, this book contains lyrics taken from Rivers to the Sea, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, and one or two from an earlier volume.

    In Coleman Barks′ delightful and wise renderings, these poems will open your heart and soul to the lover inside and out.′There are lovers content with longing.I′m not one of them.′Rumi is best known for his poems expressing the ecstasies and mysteries of love of all kinds - erotic, divine, friendship -and Coleman Barks collects here the best of those poems, ranging from the ′wholeness′ one experiences with a true lover, to the grief of a lover′s loss, and all the states in between: from the madness of sudden love to the shifting of a romance to deep friendship - these poems cover all ′the magnificent regions of the heart′.

    But these unpretentious vignettes are laced with compassion, as she learns to balance the sting of death with the tender strangeness of life.

    By writing truthfully about the intricacies of both love and loss, Sparacino’s first collection of work is one that will speak to the very depths of those who read it, inspiring a will to love, and live. This collection is a manifesto of the journey every human being takes throughout their life; an assembly of words that celebrates the resilience of the human heart through stages of hurting, feeling, healing and loving.

    (But It Would Be Helpful to Know When).”After a series of events left her a divorced single mother questioning herself, her relationships, and basically, everything she thought was true about her “picture-perfect” life, Alessandra Olanow began drawing and posting illustrations on Instagram that reflected her feelings and struggles to right her life. She chronicled her journey of healing, expressing the shock, delusion, denial, self-pity, and self-doubt she experienced and the self-empathy and forgiveness that ultimately helped her regain a sense of self—but stronger, more fearless, and more hopeful than before. Her charming illustrations and keen, memorable observations—struck a chord. Within a year, her audience grew dramatically, from 9,500 to 157,000 followers, including celebrities Katie Couric, Jennifer Garner, Elise Loehnen (chief content officer at Goop), the poet Joao Doederlein, and Joanna Goddard (founder of A Cup of Jo). I Used to Have a Plan brings Olanow’s soothing sensibility to a wider audience, featuring new drawings and ideas that touch upon the universal experiences of unexpected change and loss. Divided into five parts—“I Didn’t See That Coming,” “It’s OK That You’re Not OK,” “Where’d I Go,” “The Only Way Out Is Through,” and “I Like It Here, Can I Stay a While?”—the book beautifully encapsulates the experience of encountering difficulty, processing it and healing from it, and becoming stronger and with a better sense of self. Full of advice, commiseration, empathy, and wit that is comforting, helpful, direct, and remarkable in its truth, I Used to Have a Plan helps everyone through the painful yet ultimately uplifting process of healing.I Used to Have a Plan includes 75-100 illustrations.