Books published by Vine Leaves Press

You already know a lot more about poetry than you think. Ever recited nursery rhymes? How about sung lyrics or jingles for products? There's a bit of poetry in all of these and in much of your everyday life.This book was written to ignite the many stages of your poetry-writing journey, from the first spark of an idea through the editing and publication process.Chock-full of real-world advice, poetry examples, and prompts-here's inspiration to turbo-charge your verse for writers of all skill levels as well as plenty of creativity for workshops and classes within these packed pages.

Welcome to a genre that has zoomed into public notice with the Internet age and yet has a rich history. Flashes in both fiction and nonfiction are highly sought after by editors and publishers across a wide array of publications. This practical guide covers a diverse range of topics from the first spark of an idea through to the writing, editing, and submission/publication process, offering real-world advice each step of the way from a teacher and fellow writer with twenty-years publishing experience. Featuring thematic writing prompts and flash examples from authors such as Dinty W. Moore, founder of Brevity, this book is equally inspiring for classrooms, workshops, and individual writers excited about polishing their craft.

Imagine a remote community in Paraguay, South America, where you read by candle light, draw your water from a well, cook your meals on an open fire and attend to your needs in a rickety outhouse. To reach the nearest bus stop and telephone requires a long hike that lasts for hours along a road rutted by ox carts. In Shade of the Paraiso, Mark Salvatore relates his Peace Corps* experience (1989-91) in such a place beginning with his first day in the country-the day of a coup. His memoir transports the reader through his two years of volunteer service with its challenges, its failures, its joy, and his wedding in a leper colony.*Shade of the Paraiso recounts Salvatore's experience and he does not represent Peace Corps, Peace Corps Paraguay, or any other volunteer's experience.

From childhood to old age, the remarkable women of She Receives the Night bear the burden of the world's darkness and carry it toward the light. Robert Earle's dazzling stories illuminate the decisive moment in a woman's life when she realizes she must break through the shells and traps of relationships gone bad, customs too confining, governments too brutal, and grief too relentless. Like their counterparts in the fiction of Joy Williams and Alice Munro, these characters are tormented but resilient, abused but unyielding, sharp-eyed and sharp-witted. Na Cheon escapes a work camp in North Korea Elizabeth rescues Marta from war in Central America Henry becomes Henrietta in New York Diane assumes the presidency in Washington Katherine defies the police north of Rome Lucy finds peace in the Oregon woods. She Receives the Night tells stories of women everywhere from New Mexico to Melbourne. They are young and old. Their lives are the landscape of the heart.

When a terrifying gang goes on a rampage at a packed subway station, Professor Jeremy Withers is severely beaten and left for dead. When he regains consciousness, he continues his journey to campus, only to find his office empty: His life as an academic for 30 years has been completely erased. A surprise visit from two mysterious inspectors complicates matters further. Do they want information about his attack? Who are they working for? Where can he locate them? Soon Jeremy finds himself lost in a world that seems uncanny and unforgiving, searching for answers from people he cannot find.

';The trunk of this family is lost to history / Photo fragments remain as shadows' With subtle wit, and poignant imagery, the unrelenting passage of time connects the vignettes in Theresa Milstein's Time and Circumstance. This reflective collection of real and imagined poetry and prose, speculates on an erratic childhood, the uncertainty of adolescence, and the reality of parenthood, through flashbacks of love lost and found. ';This everyday, why again, sometimes / ignored tune has measured time in notes, / seconds, minutes, days, years, and so it goes. / It's a measure of the man he will become.'

At age 24, Janet Buttenwieser moved to Seattle with a resume devoted to public service and fantasies of single-handedly ending poverty. But within a year she'd developed an intestinal illness so rare she wound up in a medical journal. Janet navigated misdiagnosis, multiple surgeries, and life with a permanent colostomy. Like many female patients her concerns were glossed over by doctors. She was young and insecure, major liabilities in her life as a patient. How would she advocate for low-income people when she couldn't even advocate for herself?Janet's model for assertiveness was her friend Beth. She was the kind of friend who'd accompany you to the doctor when you got dysentery in Ecuador, nonchalantly translating the graphic details of your symptoms into Spanish. Throughout Janet's illness Beth took care of her; then she developed brain cancer and their roles reversed. Eventually Janet recovered, but Beth's condition worsened. At the age of 38, Beth died. To cope, Janet competed in endurance events, becoming a triathlete with a colostomy pouch. With themes that echo Susannah Cahalan's Brain on Fire and Gail Caldwell's Let's Take the Long Way Home, GUTS is a story of resilience for the millions of Americans who manage to thrive while living with a chronic condition, as well as the many who've lost a loved one at a young age.

As for who reads this bookAnd who follows its spellsI know your nameYou will not die after your deathIn WalmartYou will not perish foreverFor I know your nameSo begins this darkly comic incantation on the gods and scourges of the 21st century. The Walmart Book of the Dead was inspired by the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, funerary texts with accompanying illustrations containing spells to preserve the spirit of the deceased in the afterlife. In Lucy Biederman's version, shoplifters, grifters, drifters, and hustlers, desirous children, greeters, would-be Marxists, wolves, and circuit court judges wander Walmart unknowingly consigned to their afterlives.';This BOOK is for the dark hours, the seam that ties the end of the evening to sunrise, when the bad, wrong things people do in and around Walmart are a hospital infection, red Rit dye in a load of whites, a gun in a classroom: by the time the problem is identified, it's already ruined everything.'

In a city full of unsavory businessmen, desperate refugees, and hard-boiled spies, almost everyone is a suspect.Detective Amir Omar Duran was just a boy when the British invaded his beloved Granada. Now-after two decades of colonial rule-the ancient city of winding alleys and iconic architecture is a smoldering cauldron of corruption, poverty and strife.On the eve of a political summit between the city's wrangling factions, Amir is dispatched to Granada's torrid outskirts to investigate the unusual death of an African migrant. When the investigation puts Amir at odds with some of Granada's most powerful men, Agent Brit Tillman is assigned by The British Crown to keep a watchful eye.As more shocking evidence is unearthed, Amir and Brit must form an alliance to foil a dark conspiracy and uncover the man behind it.

Not a Place on Any Map, winner of the 2016 Vine Leaves Vignette Collection Award, explores the switch-backing emotional terrain of traumas and triumphs, as well as the disparate landscapes where they unfold. In rich, evocative snapshots of Chicago, the desert Southwest, California, New England, and Texas, the book traces a peripatetic childhood shaped by loss and dislocation that tumbles into an early adulthood spent chasing excitement from coast to coast and abroad. After being raped in Italy on her first trip to Europe at twenty-five, the author goes adrift in despair from which only drugs and alcohol provide escape. The flash lyric essays in this debut collection pursue a lost sense of self and home after trauma, but as the author discovers, home is not a place marked neatly on any map. Reaching recovery takes years and detours through depression, blurred landscapes, rehab, and jail. Ultimately, the book maps not home at all, but a truer place, one made all the sweeter for having travelled so far to find it.

In You. I. Us, Annalisa Crawford captures everyday people during poignant defining moments in their lives: An artist puts his heart into his latest sketch, an elderly couple endures scrutiny by a fellow diner, an ex-student attempts to make amends with a girl she bullied at school, a teenager holds vigil at his friend's hospital bedside, long distance lovers promise complete devotion, a broken-hearted widow stares into the sea from the edge of a cliff where her husband died, a grieving son contacts the only person he can rely on in a moment of crisis, a group of middle-aged friends inspire each other to live remarkable lives. Day after day, we make the same choices. But after reading You. I. Us., you'll ask yourself, ';What if we didn't?'

Greek cuisine, smog and domestic drudgery was not the life Australian musician, Melody, was expecting when she married a Greek music promoter and settled in Athens, Greece. Keen to play in her new shoes, though, Melody trades her guitar for a 'proper' career and her music for motherhood. That is, until she can bear it no longer and plots a return to the stage--and the person she used to be. However, the obstacles she faces along the way are nothing compared to the tragedy that awaits.This novel is accompanied by an all-original soundtrack, written and performed by the author, entitled, Melody Hill: On the Other Side. If you purchase this book, please send your receipt to Jessica via her website, and she'll send you the soundtrack for free.

Muted: It's illegal to wear clothes. In some streets, it's also illegal to sing. Concetta, a famous Italian a capella singer from before "the change," breaks these totalitarian laws. As punishment, her vocal chords are brutally slashed, and her eardrums surgically perforated. Unable to cope living a life without song, she resolves to drown herself in the river, clothed in a dress stained with performance memories. But Concetta's suicide attempt is deterred, when she is distracted by a busking harpist with gold eyes and teeth. Will he show her how to sing again, or will the LEO on the prowl for another offender to detain, arrest her before she has the chance?She: A girl's brief encounter in limbo, following a suicide attempt, after being sexually abused by a priest. God in limbo is represented by She. She has been misinformed about how faith is advocated on Earth, and sends the girl back for another chance at life, in the belief that she must repent for her sin. This story explores the notion that it is blasphemous for religion to be institutionalized, because no matter what one believes, there will always be something or someone that contaminates its worth. The only faith anyone needs can be found within one's own heart and soul. *Disclaimer: This story is not in any way a direct criticism of religion, or a representation of the author's beliefs, but simply a creative exploration of the concept.

Six women. One man. Seven secrets. One could ruin them all. Kit is a twenty-five-year-old archaeology undergrad, who doesn't like to get her hands dirty. Life seems purposeless. But if she could track down her father, Roger, maybe her perspective would change. The only problem-Roger is as rotten as the decomposing oranges in her back yard according to the women in her life: Ailish, her mother-an English literature professor who communicates in quotes and clichs, and who still hasn't learned how to express emotion on her face; Ivy, her half-sister-a depressed archaeologist, with a slight case of nymphomania who fled to America after a divorce to become a waitress; and Eleanor, Ivy's mother-a pediatric surgeon who embellishes her feelings with medical jargon, and named her daughter after "e;Intravenous."e;Against all three women's wishes, Kit decides to find Roger. Enter a sister Kit never knew about. But everyone else did.

This book is not The Book. The Book is in this book. And The Book in this book is both the goodie and the baddie.Bonnie is five. She wants to bury The Book because it is a demon that should go to hell. Penny, Bonnie's mother, does bury The Book, but every day she digs it up and writes in it. John, Bonnie's father, doesn't live with them anymore. But he still likes to write in it from time to time. Ted, Bonnie's stepfather, would like to write in The Book, but Penny won't allow it.To Bonnie, The Book is sadness. To Penny, The Book is liberation. To John, The Book is forgiveness. To Ted, The Book is envy.But The Book in this book isn't what it seems at all.If there was one thing in this world you wished you could hold in your hand, what would it be? The world bets it would be The Book.

Twisted Velvet Chains is a collection of poems which follows the experiences of a young woman growing up with a bipolar, drug addicted, Gothic musician mother. Each poem represents specific moments of their life that embrace vivid rich imagery, and illustrate the turmoil of emotions both experience while together. The collection is divided into four parts that flow one into the other from childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and post-death.

A rich collection of poems that take the reader on a deep tour of the psyche. Charting and moving across politics of language, Bell explores love, pain, failure and redemption from a variety of angles. Most of the poems sit at the fragile threshold of instinct and meaning, using symbol and sensation to get to the shock of denouement. From 'Spandex' to the Greek kafeneion, there are unexpected juxtapositions and discoveries to be found in Jessica Bell's 'Fabric'. This voice is equally inspired by the quotidian, Greek jargon words, and the mythic figures of Echo and Narcissus, Aphrodite, and, of course, Euterpe, the muse of music and the lyric. The interstices of the so-called ordinary with the always larger dramas of feeling and its consequences are among the subjects this young poet explores in her vivid weave of language.