“deborah chasman”

The decorations in a fourteen-year-old boy's room, historical ties to spiritual healers and migrant workers, the sexual puns of an older man, low-riders and youth gangs....In their language and images, the members of a Latino community in a midsized American city create self-respect in an atmosphere... More

Offers powerful insight into the portrayal of romantic love by Jean Rhys, Clover Adams, Christina Stead, Willa Cather, Grace Paley, Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and others. "Gornick makes forceful and dramatic judgments. . . . She is fearless." -Elizabeth Frank, The New York Times Book Review... More

A collection of sensual love poems from one of the most prominent African-American poets and a leader of the Black Arts Movement.In the movie lovejones, in Vibe magazine, and in music by rapper D Knowledge, the love poems of Sonia Sanchez have put into words the passions of a generation. Like the Si... More

The Presence of Absence follows Grumbach's journey to recover through prayer the sense of God's presence. Illuminated by her readings of accounts of epiphany and intensified by an extended period of extreme and chronic pain, Grumbach's quest to feel the presence of God is a moving and inspiring jour... More

Three Generations of Black Women in Motion In this vivid family memoir told in the voices of three generations of women, poet Natasha Tarpley sets her own migrations in the context of a long line of African-Americans' stories.... More

Like Sonia Sanchez and Sandra Cisneros, Pat Mora draws on oral and lyrical traditions; she reclaims the history and culture of her Mexican roots, especially real and imagined Mexican women of the past, from a tribute to Frida Kahlo to an interview with an Aztec goddess.... More

Surprising, fun, and magnificently illustrated with two hundred images, Improper Bostonians is the first book to depict Boston's three centuries of gay and lesbian life, and--since it treats the American city with the longest gay and lesbian history--the most comprehensive and meticulously researche... More

Who should be allowed to marry? Is marriage a private or public act? Shanley brings together 14 prominent writers and thinkers to debate these and other questions surrounding this "sacred institution."From the ground breaking legal decisions on gay marriage to the promotion of marriage for low-incom... More