In a time of inflated posturing and relentless self-promotion, Kari Gunter-Seymour's poems offer quiet intensity. Her work provides a refuge where one's curiosity, intelligence, and awareness of the complexities of contemporary Appalachian female culture and the struggle to hold on to "old ways" while embracing the new, take shape. The work is firmly and unapologetically attached to the poet's home soil. Each poem is earthy and rich, filled with imagery, exploring beyond the boundaries of feminism, science, and spirituality. There is specific cultural musicality of language and line, a strong sense of observation, giving readers a renewed sense of understanding and discovery of today's Appalachian woman. Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

"Demon Barber wonderfully explores ‘this consolation prize, all of it,’ by which Ruth Bardon means life, all of it, the grace notes we celebrate, the absences that make those celebrations ache. And in this extended elegy, Bardon captures—skillfully—the voices of a party still going strong as well as the plaintive calls of those who’ve left early. Here is a poet, versed in loss, who gives us vivid scenes of complex consolation, prizes to cherish." —David Wanczyk, editor New Ohio Review

Alias is Eric Pankey’s second collection of prose poems from Free Verse Editions. In this collection, Pankey continues to investigate the flexibility and possibility of this literary genre, the prose poem, which Hermaine Riffaterre says has “an oxymoron for a name.”  H. L. Hix has praised Pankey’s prose poems for their “elusive and luminous sentences” and how they “take the shape of fire.” Kevin Prufer has celebrated their meditations “on mystery, human sympathy, and the divine.” Cynthia Marie Hoffman says of these new poems, “One has the sense that Pankey sees beyond the visible, or sees both the visible and the invisible at once.” Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Across all borders, Johnny Cash fans show the appeal of an American performer who simultaneously inspires people worldwide. A Norwegian shows off his Johnny Cash tattoo. A Canadian vlogger sings “I Walk the Line” to camel herders in Egypt. A shopkeeper in Northern Ireland plays Cash as his soundtrack. A Dutchwoman co­ordinates the activities of Cash fans worldwide and is offered the privilege of sleeping in Johnny’s bedroom. And millions of people watch Cash’s videos online. In Johnny Cash International, Hinds and Silverman examine fan communities and the individuals who comprise them, profiling their relationships to Cash and each other, revealing new insights about music, fandom, and the United States. Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Set in the hardscrabble western Pennsylvania mill town of Ganaego, the interconnected stories in I’ll Be Here for You: Diary of a Town present an ethnic and generational stew of lives and passions.

Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black, Michael Hinds & Jonathan Silverman, University of Iowa Press

Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa, Enrique Ubieta, Pathfinder Press

Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper, Diarmuid Hester, University of Iowa Press