Books published by Plain View Press, LLC

With a bow to recent masters like Justice, Wright, and even Nemerov, John Morris¿s poems explore the uncertain footing of middle age. The characters we meet are clear-eyed, straight-faced, occasionally nonplussed. They¿re uncertain of their allegiance to either comfort or anguish. And their ciphering of the debts and credits of their days creates little dramas we can recognize as something like our own. Cars are ¿rust-colored, late-modeled;¿ poems ¿twist into failing origami;¿ and an old high school yearbook ¿needs a vacation. It needs a drink.¿ The lines dissect moments and events as if each implication must be given its due. Sentences surprise and involve us, somehow intuiting their own inevitable ends. Richard Terrill, author of Fakebook and Coming Late to Rachmaninoff This is the new West¿harsh sunlight shining onto office complexes and strip malls and¿just past the purview of respectable people¿onto pawn shops, Indian casinos and meth labs too. These elegiac poems describe the loneliness of eking out a decent life in an inhospitable context, keeping lassitude at bay, the depleted sense your recent last shot at joy, your grief over someone¿s death by natural causes, the meted-out unhappiness that is our human portion, constitute problems too small, too merely ordinary, to matter. These poems depict transgression and desperation in local headlines but also the transgression and desperation we find as we examine our own quiet, obedient lives. Even while Noise and Stories mines this vein of mute despair, it celebrates life¿s constancy, its ¿motion, texture, smack, & murmur.¿ Debra Monroe, author of Newfangled and Shambles John Morris is a poet of great versatility, sensitivity, and perception. He takes a moment from our lives, crystallizes it into forever. This is lovely work. Rilla Askew, author of Fire In Beulah and Harpsong John Graves Morris¿ first collection of poems is a work of many years where music and image clock one another for all the surprise and sharp edges that poetic voice admits töthese sometimes elevated and lyric voices are both true and memorable. What a wonderful volume. Norman Dubie, author of Ordinary Mornings of a Coliseum and The Insomniac Liar of Topo

At the core of this collection, which travels the globe and the neighborhood, is a deep knowledge and respect for both the physical world and the world of the heart. The poems use language, beautifully crafted and finely tuned, to create a space for them to come together.Compassion and craftsmanship come together in that beautiful way that keeps us all crawling back to poetry to learn the truth. Lisa Starr, Rhode Island Poet Laureate The work is clear, spare and moves rhythmically through recognizable grief and celebrates the sweetness of love returned, while acknowledging the real losses of this time. The unanswerable questions become the contradictions we face in reading his work, and Faber¿s poems guide us to new arrivals of meaning, both ironically and iconically altered, with ¿everything in its place¿ anew. Beatrix Gates, poet, teacher, author of several poetry collections, including Ten Minutes There¿s a whimsical, deep sweetness in Lou Faber¿s work, mingled with the toughness of mind required to take a long look at the human predicament. Absences both personal and collective haunt the poems as their speaker mourns the multinational victims of violent injustice. Next yoüll find a lyric voice set dizzily free from the laws of Newtonian physics, or Buddha and Hillel stepping out to enjoy a convivial nosh. It¿s the honesty with which Faber depicts a self fully entangled in the fabric of the world that renders convincing these flickers of canny celebration. Jan Clausen, poet, novelist and teacher, author of several books, inclucing From a Glass House. In this substantial collection of poems, I have come to admire Louis Faber¿s range, wit, and sensibilities. I¿ve had the pleasure of publishing Louis Faber¿s poetry but the real pleasure comes in reading these poems and the unexpected ways of knowing that they make possible. These poems are motivated not by the desire to dazzle the reader so much as to simply get us to see again what we know must exist. James Elkins, editor, Legal Studies Forum

A richly detailed picture of the challenges and hardships confronting indigenous village peoples in contemporary Kenya. Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, author, Prisoners of Ritual; Children's Genitals Under the Knife; The Doctor and the Poet Steeped in wisdom and conflict, these pages tell a poignant, vivid tale of Kenyan sisters who struggle for a brighter future against the bonds of cultural traditions and sacrifices. The author writes with a calm authority, her prose richly detailing the setting and its people. Kirsten Johnson is a remarkable new voice writing in the tradition of authors such as Chitra Divakaruni and Alexis D. Pate. Christine DeSmet, author, faculty associate and director, Writers' Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison Kirsten Johnson's first novel, Footsteps, opens the door to life in a traditional, east Kenyan village. Johnson creates deep layers of authenticity, describing faces in firelight, capturing village customs and dialogue, and introducing us to fascinating words in the native languages of Swahili and Kitharaka. One wonders how on earth she came so close to the intricacies of the circumcision ceremonies of young teen boys and girls. She writes with great sensitivity to the feelings of those circumcised, as well as the often conflicting perspectives of the adults surrounding them. With all the shrill debate and despair over female genital mutilation and Africa's HIV/AIDS rates, it is a relief to read about young girls' actual experiences, their anxieties, pain and even triumph, as they create new paths, leading away from those of their brothers, fathers and lovers.. Madeline Uraneck, Teacher trainer, Lesotho College of Education and returned Peace Corps volunteer, southern Africa When you read Footsteps, you can almost smell the smoke of the cooking fires, hear the rhythm of African song and see the red clay of the footpaths around Kanini's village. In short, Kirsten Johnson has made the Kenyan bush come alive! Ms. Johnson's characters are Kenyans struggling to make sense of the changes taking place all around them. The protagonist, Kanini, faces challenges all her life - physical challenges, for sure, but more importantly, challenges to her beliefs and upbringing. Tradition has given a number of people the power to control her life, and they do ... forcing her to set aside her hopes and dreams. But somehow she survives and, in a sense, prevails over these setbacks and disappointments. Kanini's experience can help Americans better understand why Africa continues to struggle. But in the shadows of this struggle, we also find seeds of hope in the form of Kanini's sister, Gatiria, and a new generation that is ready to lead the people forward. Mark Green, Director, MalariaNoMore Policy Center, Ambassador to Tanzania, 2007-08, Member of Congress, 1998-2006

Julie Mughal has written a moving, compassionate and eloquent book that is ultimately about the strength of the human spirit, even when confronted with unimaginable adversity. It is especially about the strength of wives and mothers who struggle through their own grief and deprivation to see that their fatherless children continue to have hope for a brighter future. Only someone who has experienced this reality in her own life could have the understanding that makes these stories so illuminating. In spite of the many different ways societies support or oppress the widows in their midst, Land Without Hats is ultimately another reminder that the devotion of mothers to their children supersedes all boundaries and helps us "bear unbearable sorrow." Dr. Charles MacCormack, President, Save the Children Julie Mughal's story of her own grief and renewal woven into the stories of widows' severe losses and hardships gives a voice to widows worldwide. Too often, widows and their children are swept away by the culture of neglect and abuse and Land Without Hats can only help to support their collective struggles. Her book is a call to widows of the world to come together to create change and hope for all. AnnMarie Ginella, founder of WidowSpeak This global tour of grief shimmers with the beauty of the infinite differences among cultural traditions. At the same time it offers comfort through the shared familiarity of human loss. It's a lovely tribute to widows and the men they mourn in every part of the globe. Suzanne Fisher Staples, author of Shabanu Daughter of the Wind Julie Mughal has written a stirring book, one that will touch the heart of anyone who knows what it feels like to suffer a shattering loss. She began this project as a way to make sense of the sudden death of her husband, but what she has produced is nothing less than a testament to the plight of widows and their children in some of the most desolate and dangerous parts of the world. The women whose stories Mughal brings us have survived hardships that will be all but unimaginable to many readers. But survive they have. And that, ultimately is the message of this heartfelt and deeply moving book. Phyllis Kosminsky, PhD, author of Getting Back to Life When Grief Won't Heal Unseen and unheard, widows in many countries still suffer appalling treatment because of traditional practices. They and their children are often forced into poverty at a time when they are most vulnerable. This book is a timely call for action to alleviate this fundamental breach of human rights. Patsy Robertson, Chair of Widows' Rights International.

A stereoscopic study of battlefield carnage and suburban aspirations - of the chaos of roadside explosions abroad and the masquerade of normality at home - Eve Ottenberg's stingingly detailed, stately paced Dead in Iraq is an elegy suffused with a sense of loss and fortified with a quiet fury over lives destroyed, dreams dashed, bonds severed. It's a novel about what happens under the noise of headline news, and how the lives of the survivors are lived after those headlines fade - the silent, invisible true casualty toll of war. James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist and author of the novel The Catsitters Eve Ottenberg not only knows how to tell a story, but brings you so far inside that it'll stay with you. Nat Hentoff, Village Voice columnist

"From the beginning of time there have been individuals who have been intensely capable of knowing and revealing the presence of the Divine in human life. Through and in Loren Woodson''s THE PASSION OF MARYAM, we learn about our strengths, our weakness, our spirit, and ourselves..and indeed about all that connects us to the God of many names." Rev. Ann Louise Hutchins-Case, The United Methodist Church, South Indiana; Staff Chaplain, St. Francis Catholic Hospital, Beach Grove, Indiana "With his background in psychoanalysis, author Woodson is able to shed new and fascinating light on a familiar story by revealing, in language appropriate to the times, what Maryam and those closest to her might have experienced emotionally at each stage of her remarkable journey through life." Nancy Hardin, book editor and film producer, Frida, Noriega: God''s Favorite"Woodson set out to stir the reader to reconsider the widely accepted account of the birth of Jesus to the virgin, Mary. [He] has an amazing insight and understanding of family relationships. This insight is brilliantly used as he developed his characters, their interaction and their relationships." Richard R. Blake, Christian Education Consultant"THE PASSION OF MARYAM will challenge the thoughtful reader to reconsider just what was the whole story of the limited portion of Mary''s life that the Gospels provide. This is a book to read and reread and then consider its place in the reader''s view of Christianity."Frederick L. Simmons, University of Judaism, Los Angeles, author King David, a play; co-moderator Archaeology and the Bible "In the face of our tendency to imagine that God''s anointed ones are exempt from most worldly ills, THE PASSION OF MARYAM depicts a Mary (Maryam) and Jesus (Yeshua) who confront evil, fear, doubt, and struggle full-force, yet sensing the Almighty is truly at work in their lives."Rev. Larry Young, United Methodist pastor, Southern California

"A well crafted fictional account of a real life situation too common in the USA, the prospect of losing a small town''s ambiance along with its farm lands. Tied to the land and each other in complex ways, the characters are Ohio angels with halos slightly askew. The truth of this story made my heart sing." Phyllis Wilson Moore, Independent Researcher, West Virginia Literature, Clarksburg, WV"A story of two men and a village who find their heart''s desire - and their family roots - in their own backyard. The characters are original fiction, but the fight to save the farm is real. And the fight continues, every day, all across the nation."Krista Magaw, Executive Director, Tecumseh Land Trust, Yellow Springs, Ohio