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 Monica A. Hand is a poet and book artist currently living in Harlem. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Aunt Chloe, Black Renaissance Noire, The Sow’s Ear, Drunken Boat, Beyond the Frontier, African- American Poetry for the 21st Century, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Poetry and Poetry in Translation from Drew University and is a founding member of Poets for Ayiti. 

The Ancient Romans used to call a person’s creative spirit her “genius,” and recognized the labor of setting it free as one of love and sacrifice. Octavia McBride-Ahebee’s latest collection is just such a labor. Her poems depict human longing, love and dignity in the context of global inequality with fierce, uncompromising grace. As her characters speak, she creates indelible sensory images of loveliness and affection, profound misery and anger, letting each co-exist on the page. The resulting complexity of tone makes space for nuanced and compelling human voices that might otherwise be categorized as “victims” or “villains” of oppression. It takes the full use of genius to notice and capture these contradictions, and a deep social conscience to care so passionately about writing them down. This collection is one of McBride-Ahebee’s “bighearted magnolia trees,” its trunk scarred by the fire of sacrifice, its blossoms and branches so beautiful you don’t want to leave their shade.”

-Lillian Dunn, Editor of Apiary Literary Journal

Octavia McBride-Ahebee‘s work  has appeared in the following journals and anthologies: Damazine:A Literary Journal of the Muslim World,  Fingernails Across The Chalkboard: Poetry And Prose on HIV/AIDS From the Black Diaspora; Under Our Skin: Literature of Breast Cancer; Sea Breeze- A Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writing among others. Her collection of poetry, Assuming Voices has been published by Lit Pot Press

 

In Liz Moore‘s Second Novel, Heft, Arthur Opp has two great loves: Charlene Turner and food. Charlene vanished long ago, but food has proved such a solace that Arthur now weighs over 500 pounds. In less deft hands, Arthur would become a grotesque, but Moore makes him a rich and complex character. The same is true of the other protagonist, Charlene’s son Kel, a troubled teen who suddenly appears to disrupt

Arthur’s sedentary life.

 

    “Heft achieves real poignancy… the warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable.” — Washington Post

“a quiet, absorbing tale of the redemptive quality of connection” –The Boston Globe

 

In Liz Moore‘s Second Novel, Heft, Arthur Opp has two great loves: Charlene Turner and food. Charlene vanished long ago, but food has proved such a solace that Arthur now weighs over 500 pounds. In less deft hands, Arthur would become a grotesque, but Moore makes him a rich and complex character. The same is true of the other protagonist, Charlene’s son Kel, a troubled teen who suddenly appears to disrupt

Arthur’s sedentary life.

 

    “Heft achieves real poignancy… the warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable.” — Washington Post

“a quiet, absorbing tale of the redemptive quality of connection” –The Boston Globe

When Charley Schwartz learns that an old high school pal has committed suicide, he agrees to help his alma mater organize a memorial service. Soon, however, devestation turns to disgust as Charley discovers that what matters most to his school is the bottom line. This is the setup for Marc Schuster‘s darkly comic second novel, The Grievers, a coming-of-age story for a generation that’s still struggling to come of age. 

“An extraordinary weave of humor, insight, and intelligence.” –Robin Black, author of If I loved You, I would Tell You This

“A work of astute perception, high-octane imagination, and utterly supple prose.” –Beth Kephart, author of You Are My Only

Marc Schuster‘s interests roam widely across literature and popular culture. One of his early books compared the writer Don DeLillo and the social theorist Jean Baudrillard. Another focused on the mythical Doctor Who of the long-running British TV series. Turning to fiction in The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl, Marc created a conscientious, drug-addled, disaster-prone Everywoman for our times-a “truly funny and genuinely compelling” story (Library Journal). In his second novel, The Grievers, Marc takes his dark comedy and satire to a new level. When stalled grad student Charley Schwartz tries to memorialize a late prep-school pal, the result is “a surprisingly tender look at loss and grief” (Booklist) and “an extraordinary weave of humor, insight and intelligence” (Robin Black). In addition to writing for magazines ranging from Weird Tales to Reader’s Digest, Marc teaches writing and literature at Montgomery County Community College.
 

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