Anne Liu Kellor 鈥97, Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging (She Writes Press, 2021)
Why is it so hard for me? Would the ease of a fluid tongue soothe the gaps in conversation, give me the missing key to social grace and protocol? In English, I know all the cues, the proper tones, the subtle openings, the timing involved in asking a question or telling a story or paying someone a compliment. But in Chinese, I am simplistic. My story is over in a sentence or two, my questions are premeditated yet still come out stuttered, my ears are strained to hear the answer, my head nodding if I get the drift, too shy to ask for clarification. Seeking the ease of smooth exchange, seeking to feel like an insider, I sacrifice total comprehension. It鈥檚 an old trick, ask anyone. Just smile and nod and you will belong.
Ollie Schminkey 鈥16, Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021)
This book taught me: When my dad died, I was 24, and the vast majority of the people in my life were just too young to have any real understanding of what it means to take care of someone at the end of their life. I felt incredibly isolated, but this process has taught me that so many people have had difficult relationships with terminal illness and death. I get messages almost daily from people telling me that this book has helped them feel less alone, which is amazing to me, because their messages help me feel way less alone. It鈥檚 been a truly amazing way to build bridges and have honest conversations about death.
My routine: I write weekly with a poetry workshop I run on Sunday afternoons鈥攚riting in community is one of the absolute best ways to maintain a consistent writing practice while also getting to benefit from the knowledge of other folks.
Change the conversation: I think it鈥檚 vital for us as a culture to shift the way we talk about death. There are no euphemisms or platitudes in this book鈥攎y father didn鈥檛 鈥減ass on,鈥 he died, while I was holding his hand, after an incredibly long and almost unbearable illness. Nothing in any of the media I had watched growing up had prepared me for the level of care I would need to give my dad, let alone how difficult and isolating it was to watch him die for months (add on to that our complicated relationship, his alcoholism, and me being trans and queer in a small town). It鈥檚 so important to have real, honest, and frequent conversations about death and dying鈥攖o be frank, we鈥檙e all going to die, which is something we can鈥檛 change, but we can change the way that we prepare for it and care for one another. And, of course, there is room for humor in it all.
Arra Lynn Ross 鈥99, Day of the Child (Milkweed Editions, 2021)
I would for you make the kind world.
A map of the compassionate Day:
to go where you love
and where you are loved, as I, to grasses, go.
Here we are, in June water; on three? 鈥擲o, on
five. Together, our heads go under. Gone,
the Self, shocked, by now knows
the pure right bright wash so cold loosens it all our quarrels.
Pamela Horowitz 鈥68 and Jeanne Theoharis, editors, Julian Bond鈥檚 Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement (Beacon, 2021)
鈥淛ust as Julian鈥檚 students loved learning it, Julian loved teaching them that they could be agents of social change. For him, that was teaching鈥檚 greatest reward. . . . Oddly, though I had heard Julian speak countless times and written many of the speeches, I had never gone to a class or read his class lectures. When I began reading them for this book, I could hear his voice. It was magical.鈥 鈥揚amela Horowitz 鈥68, Julian Bond鈥檚 widow
Bao Phi 鈥97, Hello, Mandarin Duck! (Capstone Editions, 2021)
鈥淥n their way to the May Day parade, children come across a strange and colorful duck. What is it? Where did it come from? Hoa and Hue enlist the help of friends as they try to get the duck to the pond, its new home. But suddenly they are surrounded by people鈥攖hey鈥檙e in the middle of the parade! In his third children鈥檚 book, Minneapolis poet Bao Phi writes about teamwork, collaboration and acceptance as neighbors welcome and protect the new and strange duck. Illustrations by MBD (an abbreviation for a name, the artist notes, that 鈥榙oes not even fit on the first page of his passport鈥) show joy, diversity and鈥攁s a police car rolls through鈥攁pprehension. A glossary translates the many languages quoted in this wise book.鈥 鈥揕aurie Hertzel, Star Tribune
Penelope Geng, assistant professor of English, Communal Justice in Shakespeare鈥檚 England: Drama, Law, and Emotion (University of Toronto Press, 2021)
Robert Haynes 鈥73, Heidegger Looks at the Moon (Finishing Line Press, 2021)
Wes Robertson 鈥08, Scripting Japan: Orthography, Variation, and the Creation of Meaning in Written Japanese (Routledge, 2021)
Rivi Handler-Spitz, associate professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, Pauline C. Lee, and Haun Saussy, editors, The Objectionable Li Zhi: Fiction, Criticism, and Dissent in Late Ming China (University of Washington Press, 2021)
David Lapakko 鈥72, Argumentation: Critical Thinking in Action, 5th edition (Kendall Hunt, 2021)
Michael McDonnell 鈥83, The Callers (Amazon, 2021)
