Prayers Like Shoes
Ruth Forman

Whit Press, in partnership with Hedgebrook, is proud to present this magnificent new collection of poetry from highly acclaimed writer and poet Ruth Forman.

"Ruth Forman's wisdom, humor and grace brighten every page of Prayers Like Shoes. Here are the cadences of a woman's true speech rising into a poetry of deep love and warning, loss and survival, building toward a scriptural lyric that leads the reader through the darkness of our times and into an opening of necessary recognition and gratitude. I heard her beautiful voice on every page."

— Carolyn Forche

"Ruth Forman's Prayers Like Shoes is a book you will carry with you for life, give to people you love, and turn to in times of joy and sadness. Her words are as natural as grass and air, and the stories they tell will travel from the page to your heart."

— Gloria Steinem

"In Prayers Like Shoes the brilliant Ruth Forman has topped herself. This is what Forman does best: brings us to the heart of all that matters and introduces us to ourselves."

— Junot Diaz

The AAA Way to Fundraising Success: Maximum Involvement, Maximum Results
Kay Sprinkel Grace

A Whit Press Special Project
In order to help ensure a healthy nonprofit sector, Whit Press is proud to partner with world-renowned development consultant, Kay Sprinkel Grace to present The AAA Way to Fundraising Success.

If you are a nonprofit board member — or a professional who works with nonprofit board members – here is a solution for getting ALL board members engaged in donor development and fundraising. That's right: ALL.

AAA is a management tool that can make everyone's job easier when it comes to developing relationships and building financial resources. Not just a concept, AAA has been implemented by Kay's nonprofit clients across the globe.

The results? Wider and deeper board engagement, a growing confidence about getting involved in the asking process, and increased financial resources, even in a turbulent recessionary economy. This is a book to ensure the future of your organization.

"I have been involved in nonprofits for many years as an Executive Director. I am so excited about your AAA Approach. I have worked with so many boards over the years and feel that you have the answer." — Donna McMillion, Development Director, Hope Hospice

Beloved Community - The Sisterhood of Homeless Women in Poetry
A W.H.E.E.L. Anthology

The Women of WHEEL have filled this anthology with poetry as honest, powerful and thoughtfully written as anything being published in American Letters. These women tell not only their own stories, but the larger story of homelessness as well.

These are our sisters, our friends, our families -- ourselves.

This book will change you. After reading the experience, strength and hope contained in these powerful poems. it becomes impossible to ignore or tolerate homelessness in our communities. This is the transformational power of poetry in action.

"Wherever and whatever writing workshops are held, they have a universal, empowering effect. To create something from the heart, share it, and have others respond to you, is the essence both of building a community, and of building a sense of self."
-WHEEL Writer, Anitra Freeman

"Without a home, which is a symbol of the self, these women have created a self on paper. Read their miraculous poetry -- and give them a home."
- GLORIA STEINEM

All royalties from the sale of this book go to support WHEEL and other programs dedicated to ending homelessness.

Flowers Blooming Against a Bruised Gray Sky
Uchechi Kalu

This first collection of poetry from Nigerian born poet Uchechi Kalu contains the fire and immediacy of a true witness for justice. Whether she is speaking outrage to Shell Oil in her native Nigeria, or to the personal pain of a brother lost -- Uchechi's powerful voice emerges with a rare clarity and grace.

"Strong as an African orchid." - Ruth Forman

Clash with
the American Dream
Momma tells me
work hard in school
earn a 4.0 GPA
so I can ace this country
I do not believe her
because momma
smart like me
works in a nursing home
stoops over someone else's toilet
earns six dollars an hour
with a masters degree

Voices in Wartime - The Anthology
Edited by Andrew Himes with Jan Bultmann and others

Voices in Wartime is an anthology comprising poetry, essays, and narratives based on interviews conducted for the film Voices in Wartime. Its 240 pages contain not the words of politicians or pundits but rather, active-duty soldiers, veterans, torture victims, war correspondents, the families of the disappeared and the dead, poets, peace activists--compelling responses of "unique, individual human beings" to the experience of war.

Always heartfelt, and often heart-breaking, Voices in Wartime adds up to a sum greater than its parts, for only by walking in the shoes of those who wage war and those who suffer it can the rest of us begin to understand the common humanity that binds us all together.

If history and literature have taught us anything, it is that in the midst of trauma, violence and death, it is the poets who help us make sense of the senseless. In a world turned suddenly upside down, Voices in Wartime can help to bring us together and lead us to a better place.

When I was torn by war
i took a brush
immersed in death
and drew a window
on war's wall
i opened it
searching for
something
But
i saw another war
and a mother
weaving a shroud
for the dead man
still in her womb
--Sinan Antoon, Iraqi poet

IN PRAISE OF FERTILE LAND - An Anthology of Poetry, Parable and Story
Edited by Claudia Mauro

In Praise of Fertile Land is a unique nonprofit publishing project - a feast of poetry and stories uniting the voices of our neighbors, our kids and our finest poets and storytellers. This anthology honors the people, places, and labor of our fertile lands.

This Anthology features work by; Lucille Clifton, Wendell Berry, Emily Dickinson, Joy Harjo, Langston Hughes, Seamus Heaney, Ebone Jones, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, Li Young Lee, Pablo Neruda, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marge Piercy, Ntozake Shange and many more. All royalties from the sale of this book go directly to programs that preserve and protect our precious remaining farmlands.

TO COME TO LIGHT, Perspectives on Chronic Illness in Modern Literature
Edited by Amy Bonomi

To Come To Light provides a unique emotional, spiritual link for the professionals who research and treat chronic illness, and the actual patients and caregivers who experience those illnesses. The unifying thread through this collection is the fusion of fiction, poetry and medical practice, a genre recently classified as narrative medicine: literary explorations that absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and experiences of others. Includes work by Sherman Alexie, Raymond Carver, Galway Kinnell, Jane Kenyon, Margaret Atwood, Leo Tolstoy, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Vincent Van Gogh, many more.

ISBN: 0-9720205-0-0    
Currently unavailable to the general public.
Librarians and educators- please contact us with requests.
 

CITY TO CITY, SEATTLE READS NEW YORK (CD)

In October 2001, Whit Press produced a benefit reading/recording of literary work celebrating the energy and resilience of New York City in the weeks following September 11th 2001. Seattle writers were asked to select and read some of their favorite work about New York City . Nine Seattle writers from all literary disciplines participated in this benefit event for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council , whose offices were destroyed in the WTC attack. This extraordinary reading was recorded in collaboration with Jack Straw and produced as a CD by Whit Press. This recording provides a lasting record of our city's response to the event that transformed our national identity. Reading includes work by W.H. Auden, Walt Whitman, Audre Lorde, Martin Espada, Diane Diprima, Philip Levine, Joan Didion and many more.

OPENINGS, Quotations on Spirituality in Everyday Life
Edited by Shelley Tucker

"A word after a word after a word is power"
- Margaret Atwood

There is a deep resonant power and relevance in this book of quotations. A beautifully designed book, edited as mindfully as a poem. Includes the words of Maya Angelou, Jelauddin Rumi, Willa Cather, Martin Luther King Jr., Hildegard of Bingen, Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Joseph Campbell, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Zora Neale Hurston, and hundreds more.

ANIMAL TAILS, Poetry and Art by Children
Edited by Shelley Tucker

Currently unavailable.
Librarians and educators- please contact us with requests.

Spectacular poetry and artwork by children. Children take the seemingly mundane and emerge with the majestic. What we discover is that wonder and mystery are made of small daily components we can know. Children show us that through careful observation and expression, we can live the beauty all around us.