Books published by Apprentice House

Illuminating the intimate, human faces of war, this unique series of short stories by award-winning author Katey Schultz questions the stereotypes of modern war by bearing witness to the shared struggles of all who are touched by it. Numerous characters-returning U.S. soldier and pragmatic jihadist, Afghan mother and listless American sister, courageous amputee and a ghost that cannot let go-appear in Flashes of War, which captures personal moments of fear, introspection, confusion, and valor in one collection spanning nations and perspectives. Written in clear, accessible language with startling metaphors, this unforgettable journey leaves aside judgment, bringing us closer to a broader understanding of war by focusing on individuals, their motivations, and their impossible decisions. Flashes of War weaves intimate portrayals of lives affected by the War on Terror into a distinctive tapestry of emotional resonance. It builds bridges, tears them down, and sends out a universal plea for reconnection.

This meticulously researched biographical sketch attempts to convince its readers that an immigrant who arrived with little financial means or formal education would become a wealthy merchant, a champion of education, a force in Cincinnati and Ohio politics, and a founder of the American Jewish Reform Movement. He would rub elbows with several Presidents, influence more than one Presidential election and come within one broken promise of becoming the first Jew to serve in a Presidential cabinet. He was at the center of the landmark case that prohibited the reading of the Bible in public schools, the immediate cause of this nation's most infamous anti-Semitic act, and landed in the midst of a Congressional investigation that would lead to creation of the False Claims Act. His actions reverberate to this day.

The Hidden Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives makes a compelling argument for the importance of the "intimacy literary narrative" in getting to know a city through an emotional lens that is otherwise untapped by linear history and geographic landmarks.Using the structure of the anatomical heart, Cottle brings us through Baltimore's unexplored chambers by amplifying the romantic relationships and tender correspondences that have, before now, remained unearthed and underground, neglected and belittled.Igniting the voices of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Lorena Hickok, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other local powerhouses, along with their spouses and intimate partners, Cottle invites us into the delicate, contested space between the private sphere and the public realm-while there, she asks us to meditate on its contributions to the larger historical narratives of Baltimore. Ultimately, The Hidden Heart of Charm City brings its readers to a more intimate understanding of Baltimore by placing the untold stories of its natives at the forefront of its histories. It provides us with a soulful, unedited account of not only what the city has done for its inhabitants, but what it can offer the rest of our nation and beyond.

Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka brings to life in English the magical realism in the poetry and prose of Poland's Lidia Kosk, entwining fairytale and real life, innocence of youth and instantaneous maturity, the horrors of war with the hope for peace. We are brought into a world unknown to many: rural Poland in the years immediately before, during, and after the Second World War. The audience learns of a girl's upbringing and the lust for life that she developed even before she confronted genocide and totalitarianism. This project is a labor of love, of stories and knowledge passed on between women, and across generations - in this book, from mother Lidia Kosk, to daughter Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka, and through her to the world at large.

When twenty-eight-year-old Maria Giura fell in love with Catholic priest Father James Infanzi, she had no idea how needy and angry they both were nor how complicated their attraction would become.His attention seemed to fill the void left by her fractured family, but he also seemed to be a sign for her to finally face the celibate vocation she'd been running from ever since she first felt God's call. Celibate focuses on her ten-year struggle to let go of this priest, to heal from her childhood, and to finally embrace her true calling. Fiercely honest and tender, this memoir is ultimately a story about surrender, forgiveness, and facing one's deepest needs.

Many beginning writers and editors benefited from a crusty old editor's brisk maxims about the craft. If you want to be reminded of those days, look inside. If you want to learn those brisk maxims, many of them are collected here.

Philosophy Sketches is a collection of published op-ed essays that provide philosophical perspectives on many local and current events. Some of the topics have received wide-spread attention—such as assisted suicide, the use of drones and cell-phones, human garbage, or conducting warfare. Other topics emphasize goings-on in the area, such as Baltimore’s Grand Prix race, local educators, nearby monuments and distribution of needles to prevent AIDS.

At the end of 1884, the tiny 25 year old servant of granite dealer, Robert McClenahan, walked out of his kitchen in Port Deposit, Maryland and started a new life as Mary Ellen Murray Murray, "that second Murray being her ticket to independence."Born to Irish Catholic immigrants to America, Mary Ellen would instead be cooking for her husband, William Murray, the blacksmith at Shop #1 in the quarry. In 1897, their fourth son, Jerome was born. Since childhood when he fell through the outhouse into Rock Run, he was destined to be near water - and to tell stories.Steps follows the path of four generations of the Murrays, who lived and worked in the "quaint" riverside town of Port Deposit. From starving and poorly literate, emerged families who found gainful employment in the quarries and first class schooling in the town. You will enjoy these true stories of the young men and women of the Murray family as they journey in and out of the town's homes and buildings during a historically unique period!

It’s 2015; Louis Fields is a 46 year old high-school English teacher whose wife died in a freak accident six years ago; his son’s moved to college, and he feels like he has nothing left to live for.An old friend of Lou’s, Ashley Tate, and her husband, Leonard, re-enter Louis’s life to reveal that Ash has fallen ill with cancer. While supporting Ash in her fight against the disease, Lou serves as an adjunct instructor at a creative writing seminar at the University of Pennsylvania, where four freshman students from across the spectrum of life come together to explore what makes someone a ‘good friend,’ detailing stories of beauty, tragedy, and resilience.An unlikely bond forms between Ash’s son Tyler and Lou, due to the fact, at age 16, Tyler’s mother is fighting cancer at the same age Lou lost his own mother to the disease. Through the novel’s depiction of hardship, Lou understands the true value of compassion.

Matt Hohner's Thresholds and Other Poems is a poetry of loss, violence, beauty and love. In this collection, Hohner addresses the toll and joy of living, head-on and honestly. Facing rough social and political headwinds blowing at home and abroad, Hohner speaks with full voice against the storm of malevolence that so often seems the norm. In this terror, though, there is a desperate clinging to love, which Hohner returns to simply and elegantly. Perhaps it is in his reaching for solace that Hohner's poems offer their greatest strength, while promising something more relatable: catharsis. The value of Thresholds and Other Poems is not in the path to peace this collection seeks, but in the pressure release valve it gives the reader from a tumultuous world. Friendship and marriage, the sensual act of eating an oyster, a hike in the woods at dusk-all find celebration in these pages. There is hope in these poems, and you will laugh and smile, too. Thresholds takes us to that frontier at the edge of the darkness, where the light lives.