The Heart of All That Is

This engaging anthology on the theme of home includes twenty personal essays and nearly eighty poems from a wide variety of social and cultural perspectives, as unique and diverse as the authors who have written them. Herein is previously uncollected writings by Joseph Bruchac, Jane Yolen, Marge Piercy, Naomi Shihab Nye, Roberta Hill, Mark Vinz, and many others.

In a world of increasing change and mobility, these writings explore our most fundamental concerns for self-identity: what is our home, where have we come from, who am I?

From "The House Made of Words":

Some day I will havea house made of words.It will be all windows and doors, with the words placed in rows, each one leading to the next, the way the presentwears the face of the past.

Jim Perlman is the founding editor and publisher of Holy Cow Press.

Deborah Cooper is the author of Under the Influence of Lilacs (Clover Valley Press, 2010). She is the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Duluth, Minnesota.

Mara Hart writes memoir in prose and poetry. Her book, Lovecraft's New York Circle, was published in 2007 by Hippocampus Press.

Pamela Mittlefehldt is a poet and mystery writer. She is working on a collection of essays about the meaning of place.