Author Alley 2023
a pet, or even two. But every time I brought one home,
my sister went Ah-Choo! When hunting for his new best friend, a boy goes through an alphabetical menagerie of animals. From an antelope, to bobolink birds, to wolves and zebras--and of course, a cat and dog, too--he brings them all home. But each creature just makes his sister go AH-CHOO! Will he ever be able to have the perfect pet?
A classic bedtime story of a mother describing her love to her son. As Ekpen's Mama put him to be, he asked her "How much do you love me mama?" Mama takes Ekpen on an adventure describing the extent of her love for him using Ekpen's favorite items.
Step into Bella's magical world with her very special umbrella!
Have you ever loved something so much that other people thought was just ordinary? Bella LOVES her umbrella and shows us just how one girl's colorful imagination can turn an ordinary umbrella into much, much more! Join Bella on her journey as her umbrella takes her through the highs and lows of life and see why her love for her special umbrella will never go away!
"Ben Gwin writes like F. Scott Fitzgerald high on meth and Clean Time is The Great Gatsbyfor a generation that thinks fame is the answer to every question."
-LORI JAKIELA, Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker
"A vivid portrait of life in the druggy demimonde of petty scams, aimless loafing erupting in sudden violence, and epic pharmaceutical hangovers." -PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Framed as the drug-addled memoir of addict-turned-reality TV star Ronald Reagan Middleton (annotated and published by floundering doctoral candidate Harold Swanger), Clean Time is a darkly comic satire set in a near-future America ravaged by addiction. In this sprawling and ambitious debut novel, Ben Gwin masterfully balances farce and irony with a genuine compassion for the large cast of characters that fumble through a nightmarish and all-too-familiar version of America.
In these wise and lovely mortal ruminations Neil Carpathios, long one of my favorite poets, turns fifty, that perilous promontory from which the world starts to flicker like an old neon sign. But age just makes Carpathios pay attention all the more keenly. The joy of this book is that it makes us pause with him on our little human journey and take in the view while we still have time. You couldn't ask for a better guide. --George Bilgere
The poems in Neil Carpathios' new book, though much concerned with death, are very much alive: intelligent, tender, humorous, entertaining, and even profound--sometimes all at the same time. As the best poets do, Carpathios celebrates our astonishing luck in being able, however limited our time, to "behold the lipstick kiss on a glass's rim," and "listen to the crickets." --Charles Harper Webb