Books published by Wising Up Press

Created to encourage expanding conversations about our common good, GOODNESS, A Wising Up Anthology explores the impact of goodness in our lives: who has embodied it for us, where we have seen it in action, and how it has changed us.

RE-CREATING OUR COMMON CHORD A Wising Up AnthologyWith the intense polarization in our society these days, the volume and vitriol so high on all sides, how do we live out our commitment to the existentially equal value of those around us when we ourselves feel deeply devalued, feel our definition of the common good is unheard or denied? What do we do with our strong responses to the threat that devaluation poses-a threat our bodies and our hearts recognize even faster than our minds? Under threat we all become more authoritarian, impulsive, suspicious, unkind-and frightened, discouraged, and unforgiving. It's so quick, like a switch. An alternate reality. None of us are exempt. But we do have the beginning of the answer if we can slow down, step back, listen. That beginning is US, just as much as the polarization is. Its essence is a presumption of good faith. And a never-ending practice of discovering, rediscovering and creating our common good-a practice that depends heavily on our ability to see the good in each other, however different we are. Really see it, lift it up, and do the same with our own. We're not saying this practice is easy, especially now. We are saying it's crucial-and rewarding. It is also small, specific, one person, one relationship, at a time. Thirty-seven contemporary writers share here, through memoir, fiction, poetry, and essay, their own experiences with discovering, creating, or re-creating our common chord across nationality, class, criminal justice, religion, race, politics, family, community. Come join us . . . CONTRIBUTORS: Thomas Abakah, Eve Mills Allen, David Arango-Dimitrijevic, Donna Banta, Patricia Barone, Charles D. Brockett, Judy Catterton, Bonni Chalkin, Susan K. Chernilo, Maryah Converse, Eleanor Ellis, S. J. Engstrom, Elizabeth Brulé Farrell, Judith Gille, Stephanie Hart, J. O. Haselhoef, Sharon Hilberer, Gaye D. Holman, Susan Martell Huebner, Daniel M. Jaffe, Mimi Jennings, Murali Kamma, Laurie Klein, Lori Levy, Chuck Madansky, Beth McKim, Monica Mische, Sharon Lask Munson, Marianne Peel, Ada Jill Schneider, Patty Somlo, J.J. Steinfeld, Kelly Talbot, Lucia Talenti, Heather Tosteson, Loretta Diane Walker, Tyree Wilson

In Green Card and Other Essays, Áine Greaney invites her readers to follow her three-decades' long journey from Irish citizen and resident to new immigrant and green card holder to dual citizenship that now includes naturalized U.S. citizenship. These first-person essays offer an intimate perspective on the challenges-fear, displacement, assimilation and dueling identities-faced by many immigrants from all countries. They explore what inspires us to commit to a new country-and what holds us back. As a collection, Green Card exemplifies the power of storytelling to build bridges of understanding and a deeper joy in our shared humanity.

The stories in this debut collection explore experiences of first generation Indian immigrants in the U.S. Kamma's characters deal with conflict, growth, dislocation, and renewal in a new world. Their old world is also present, and this "in-betweenness" shapes their lives. Once immigration involved leaving all behind, assuming a new identity with your new culture. Now we move back and forth-between continents, cities, our different mores no longer tidily compartmentalized, sometimes more migrant than immigrant. Generational splits in families mirror and amplify the gulf between new and old. A father steps off a train at a station and disappears for a son's entire childhood; an emigrant son returning for a visit easily falls in with his father's delusion that he is a servant. A couple safely ensconced in their new American life face the costs of their choices when those they left behind come to visit. Divisions within a nation, whether of caste or class, can be more striking than differences between countries. Returning to India, characters revisit choices they or their parents made with radically different sensibilities and assumptions now in play. What seemed shocking, inevitable, or impossible then, may feel inconsequential, arbitrary, or heroic now. Like his characters, the author is an acute observer-and diffident interpreter-of a much larger world that will never feel fully familiar again.Most of us in this country came originally from different places-geographically, socially, and spiritually. While bodies can be easily transported, it takes longer for uprooted spirits to engage the new territory. . . . Murali Kamma engages the past and present dimensions of that struggle, illuminating, along the way, what it means to be Indian, American, and truly human.Roderick Clark, Editor/Publisher, Rosebud magazineFrom the first paragraph, the very first sentence, Murali Kamma had me engrossed and engaged in the narrative, and my interest did not diminish until I got to end of the book, twenty stories in all, to its very last sentence.Waqas Khwaja, Ellen Douglass Leyburn Professor of English, Agnes Scott College, author of Hold Your Breath and No One Waits for the TrainIn this exciting and moving debut collection, Murali Kamma explores the immigrant condition with compassion and candor. Readers, no matter what their background, will relate to these characters who are part Indian, part American, and wholly human. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, author of Before We Visit the Goddess and The Forest of Enchantments A collection of powerful stories that opens up a larger world for the reader.The haunting quality and the emotional punch they deliver linger in the mind. This is a writer to watch.Bharti Kirchner, author of Darjeeling, Goddess of Fire, and Season of Sacrifice

SURPRISED BY JOY, A Wising Up Anthology Editors: Charles D. Brockett and Heather TostesonJOY. It's out of our control-unpredictable, illogical, transitory, all-consuming. It can shatter our most basic assumptions. It can heal. It isn't an idea. It is far more than a body state. It can come to us at the strangest times-in the depths of despair or the height of frustration, when we're most lonely or when we're most fully embraced, or just absently mindedly staring off into space. It is transforming, but it does not take us out of ourselves or our situations. It is, in itself, an answer that gives birth to very different questions, ones we may not have known how to ask-about the real, but unpredictable, good in us and the world around us. But it is easy in times of tumult and anger to forget that this experience of joy-and what flows from it-may be more lasting than our outrage. In this anthology forty-three contemporary writers help us explore, through fiction, poetry, and memoir, how experiences of joy help shape us and our relationship with the world around us. CONTRIBUTORS: Patricia Barone, Zan Bockes, Lauren K Carlson, Joe Cottonwood, Susan Cowger, Margaret DeRitter, Joan Dobbie, Terri Elders, Jennifer L. Freed, Andrew Paul Grell, Patrick Cabello Hansel, Andrea Hansell, Linda Hansell, J.O. Haselhoef, Margaret Hasse, Lowell Jaeger, Daniel M. Jaffe, Laurie Klein, Kerry Langan, Lori Levy, Charissa Menefee, Felicia Mitchell, Kristin Bryant Rajan, Zack Rogow, Mary Kay Rummel, Frank Salvidio, Terry Sanville, Jan Sarchio, Deborah A. Schmedemann, Pegi Deitz Shea, Ruth Margolin Silin, Laurence Snydal, J. J. Steinfeld, Alison Stone, Kelly Talbot, Mark Tarallo, Don Thackrey, Heather Tosteson, Claudia Van Gerven, Rosemary Volz, Ken Wise, Weihua Zhang, Jana Zvibleman

CROSSING CLASS: The Invisible Wall. A Wising Up Anthology. Editors: Charles D. Brockett and Heather Tosteson. CLASS: It's the great unspeakable in a society dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal, with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that believes in the redistributive power of personal ambition, hard work, self-intention and self-definition. It might be the most powerful and intractable of social divisions, its effects potent even within culture, race, or gender. Whether we buy in consciously or not, we are all subject to the shaping power of class. But what exactly does it mean to be shaped by class? How does this shaping affect what we long for, strive for, believe is possible-not just for us but for those around us and the world at large? What happens to our understanding of class, of our society and of ourselves, when we cross class boundaries upwards ordownwards, willingly or unwillingly, through education, employment, marriage, divorce, friendships and other meaningful relationships, immigration or emigration, illness, economic or political upheaval? How does our experience of class mobility, wanted or unwanted, change our understanding of ourselves, our social relationships, our sense of social agency, our sense of our society? How does it change our understanding of the possibilities and challenges of living out E Pluribus Unum? Thirty contemporary writers help us explore the impact of class and inequality through fiction, memoir, poetry-and some graphs. CONTRIBUTORS:Danisa Bell, Maida Berenblatt, Sarah Bigham, J. Andrew Briseño, Charles D. Brockett, Elizabeth Burton, Marian Mathews Clark, Gillian Esquivia Cohen, Susan G. Duncan, Katherin Hervey, Lowell Jaeger, Daniel M. Jaffe, Murali Kamma, Judith J. Katz, John Laue, Michele Markarian, Nancy L. Meyer, Carl Palmer, Mark Pawlak, Patricia Smith Ranzoni, Mary Kay Rummel, Ada Jill Schneider, Patty Somlo, Jane St. Clair, Robert Stinson, Heather Tosteson, Donald R. Vogel, Mark D. Walker, Ken Williams, Andrena Zawinski

What is repair in relationships? It's not starting anew. It's not jumping ship. It's not settling, either. It takes as many forms as there are relationships. It's difficult. It matters. It takes both sides to do it-and we do it all the time, in large and small ways. So why don't we like to talk about it? Why do we tend to think of it as a failure rather than a source of resilience, like the constant re-equilibrations of balance that allow us to walk, dance, break bread and move mountains? In this intriguing anthology of poetry, memoir, and story, forty-four talented writers ages twenty to eighty explore repair in many forms: between adults and their parents, parents and their children, in romantic relationships, marriage, divorce, bereavement because of the death of a parent, spouse, or grandchild, and in relationship to broader social conditions as well, like poverty, addiction, racism, war, physical differences, disease. With humor, grief, wit, tenderness, honesty, kindness, anger and hope, they invite us to explore-and celebrate-what it takes for all of us to stay connected. This is a book you can find yourself in. This is a book you can share-with a brother, a long lost friend or one you talk with daily, a parent, a child, a colleague, a spouse-and learn something new about them and yourself, growing closer in the process. Contributors: Patricia Barone, Bari Benjamin, Wendy Brown-Báez, Caitlin Buckley, Rose Burke, Susan Kay Chernilo, Arhm Choi, Marian Mathews Clark, Willy Conley, Terry Cox-Joseph, Bill Denham, Martha Gies, Judith Goedeke, Janet Lunder Hanafin, R.E. Hayes, William Henderson, Paul Hostovsky, Beth Lefebvre, Russ Allison Loar, Michele Markarian, Diane Mierzwik, Caridad Moro, Tim Myers, Wendy Jones Nakanishi, Eve Mills Allen, Sophia J. Nolan, Jim Pahz, Rachel Raimondi, Melanie Reitzel, Lori Rottenberg, Mary Kay Rummel, Adrienne Ross Scanlan, Evelyn Sharenov, Isabelle Bruder Smith, Thomas J. Stevenson, Elizabeth Swann, Elaine J. Taber, Don Thackrey, Heather Tosteson, Carol Tufts, Georgann Turner, Marta Tveit, Andy Weatherwax, Mary Wheeler, Weihua Zhang.

In passionate, lyrical, funny, angry, and ecstatic poems that migrate from the heartland of the country to the Atlantic coast and beyond, this young poet searches the world within her and around her for intimate myths that will hold, stories that will heal, actions that can transform the restless quest for love into its steady practice, adolescence into adulthood. "With sonorous cadences, with relentless honesty, and with deeply human truths, as well as deeply human humans infusing her poems, Maria Nazos has written a stunning first collection. Godspeed (like a bolt, like a bullet) A Hymn That Meanders into the world!" Thomas Lux, author of Particles: Poems, The Cradle Place, The Street of Clocks, and New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995. "Maria Nazos's first book successfully depicts an 'us' whose lyric motion is equal parts devotional and destructive but never accidental. This is grown-folk poetry, up front and adult, and there is not an ounce of surface-utterance in A Hymn that Meanders." Thomas Sayers Ellis, author of Skin Inc: Identity Repair Poems and The Maverick Room. Maria Nazos was raised in Athens, Greece and Joliet, Illinois. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives and writes inProvincetown, Massachusetts.

SHIFTING BALANCE SHEETS:Women's Stories of Naturalized Citizenship & Cultural Attachment. A Wising Up Anthology. Editors: Heather Tosteson, Kerry Langan, Charles D. Brockett and Debra Gingerich. In this anthology, thirty-four women and girls from twenty countries, now living all across the U.S., reflect on their journeys to naturalized U.S. citizenship-journeys that invite all of us, native and foreign born, to consider what it means to choose to be an American. In Chinese Daughters: All-American Girls, American mothers whose Chinese daughters have become naturalized citizens through adoption, and these insightful teen-agers themselves, ponder how their experiences of cross-national adoption with a unique gender imperative influences their sense of personal, cultural, national and global identity. In Natural Women: Naturalized Citizens, women from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, England, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan and Zambia describe their unique journeys to naturalized citizenship as adults-wondering what womanhood, family, love, cultural identification, intellectual curiosity, professional ambition, material need, war, revolution or chance have to do with it. Their stories invite us all to think more generously and intentionally about the invitations and expectations inherent in citizenship-and our shared responsibility to shape, nurture, and celebrate the constantly changing We in We, the People. Contributors: Cathy Adams, Anna Mae Anhalt, Patricia Barone, Elizabeth Bernays, Lisa Chan, Yu-Han Chao, Clementina, Mariel Coen, Linda D'Arcy, Madeline Geitz, Jennifer Bao Yu Jue-Steuck, Alicia Karls, Nikolina Kulidzan, Mariette Landry, Kerry Langan, Karen Levy, Karen Loeb, John Manesis, Katherine D. Perry, Donna Porter, Angelika Quirk, Amita Rao, Diane Raptosh, Lourdes Rosales-Guevara, Sonya Sabanac, Jian Dong Sakakeeny, Alexandrina Sergio, Azadeh Shahshahani, Maria Shockey, Sandra Soli, Julija Suput, Natalia O. Treviño, Boryana Zeitz, Weihua Zhang

Based on over one hundred interviews with people across all faith traditions, this is, first of all, a book of stories, each fascinating and unique. We are invited to read these stories with the express intention of feeling what we have in common with the people whose life stories we find here, whether they are conservative Christian housewives or liberal young Muslim immigrants, Buddhist musicians, or Harley-riding shamans. What does the world look like, sound like, taste like, feel like from that person's point of view? How have they experienced life's formidable mystery? When? Where? What language is their true language of faith? What theology has their life given birth to? What pain and what generosity does their story need to contain? The core theme of this book is what happens to us, as well as others, when we hold their spiritual stories in our imagination as if they could be our own. We may find our understanding of our own spiritual journey shifts, that our own life, in all its twists and turns, is highly resonant with those of out neighbors, whatever their faith. After reading these stories, we may end up feeling securely in the midst whatever our own spiritual journey has consisted of, wherever we find ourselves now-comfortably expanding into the religion of our childhood, deepening our understanding of a new one, or feeling ready to leave, reluctant to join, mute, lifted in song, lost, decisively found. "This is a marvelous read for all interested in the spiritual journeys of others as well as their own. Over 100 interviews with diverse persons from various faith traditions are woven into a narrative that will deepen the reader's own faith as it broadens their understanding of the faith of others." Dr. Ralph W. Hood Jr., Professor of Social Psychology, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga "Heather Tosteson knows how to listen past the surface where differences are so evident to the depths where common hopes and dreams are found. What's more--and this is rare--she knows how to describe what she has heard. This book is a model for genuine and generous conversation." Dr. Guy Sayles, Pastor, First Baptist Church of Asheville, NC "God Speaks My Language: Can You? is a valuable and fascinating collection of almost one hundred stories of faith. . . .Tosteson is an astute observer, a courageous and empathetic interviewer, and a splendid writer. She offers her own interpretation of these varied accounts, constructing a plausible typology and suggesting that beneath our commitments to disparate practices and doctrines are personal stories offering glimpses of common religious experiences. This fine book is an invitation to join the conversation about affirming difference in an ever increasing religious pluralism." Dr. John Shelley, Professor of Religion, Furman UniversityRevised Edition