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ABP Books


Mi Tía Cajeta

Nancy Perez Fugere & Issa Nyaphaga

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​In this heartwarming bilingual story, seven-year-old Lupita lives with her puppy Chiwa and her three older sisters, when her mysterious Aunt Cajeta comes to visit. At first, Lupita is afraid of her aunt, but she quickly comes to see that appearances are deceiving.

Told in both English and Spanish, Mi Tia Cajeta teaches children the value of looking beyond appearances and embracing differences. With vibrant illustrations by Issa Nyaphaga and a fun, engaging storyline, this book encourages young readers to celebrate diversity, kindness, and true friendship.

Perfect for bilingual families, early language learners, and anyone who loves a story with a meaningful lesson!

Broken to Mend

Ricardo Tane Ward-Ramirez​

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In this moving collection of poetry, the world becomes a canvas for exploring the depths of human experience. Broken to Mend investigates the intersection of human trauma with the healing powers of nature and activism. Through deeply lyrical verse and haunting imagery, Ricardo Tane Ward-Ramirez navigates the landscapes of both outer and inner worlds, each poem a testament to the interconnectedness of all life, where the scars of nature mirror the scars of human brutality we carry within. This collection is a call to embrace the healing power of nature, to engage in an activism that nurtures both the Earth and the human spirit, and to discover renewal in the profound cycles of life and love
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Broken to Mend
by Ricardo Tane Ward-Ramirez
ISBN: 978-1943306251

Forty Years at Paisano: A Literary History

Audrey Slate

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​Forty Years at Paisano
by Audrey Slate
ISBN: 
978-1-943306-22-0
Since its inception, the Dobie Paisano Fellowship, a writing residency located on an isolated ranch of the edge of the Texas Hill Country, has been the origin point for a series of unforgettable novels, groundbreaking essays, and extraordinary poems. Under the leadership of Dr. Audrey Slate, the program became one of the most prestigious writer retreats in the country, hosting not only some of the most important Texas writers but some of the most distinguished national and international writers as well, including Sandra Cisneros, Stephen Harrigan, Jan Reid, Oscar Casares, Dagoberto Gilb, and Lisa Sandlin.

In this fascinating memoir/history of the fellowship’s first forty years, Audrey Slate traces the ongoing evolution of a fellowship that has become a sanctuary for literary minds. Through interviews, personal accounts, and deep archival research, Forty Years at Paisano narrates the lives of writers who found inspiration at Paisano Ranch and the landscape that shaped their words.

“It’s no surprise that the people who were given the gift of Paisano have felt an imperative to write about it. For many of us it was more than a ranch, more than a few precious months of time. It was as close as anything to the golden moment of our creative lives, when we were unhurried, unconstrained, and productive.”
—Stephen Harrigan, from the Introduction 

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To Those Born Later: Selected Poems 2017-2020

Ken Fontenot

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"To read Ken Fontenot is to travel, deeply, inside a truly original mind and vision, inside music, inside the small shining corners of the days, through radiant curiosity and questioning. His rich memory helps revive your own. Mysteriously, you too feel in better tune. I think his many gifts center in some luminous instinct for balance and image, for solitude and society—'Chairs face each other/the way employees do, but have nothing to talk about' or 'I feel I need company'—his poems are terrific, generous company in any season of life."
—Naomi Shihab Nye
 
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To Those Born Later
by Ken Fontenot
ISBN: 
978-1943306237 

Mississippi Milkwater

Sybil Pittman Estess

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In her sharp memoir of growing up in 1950s Mississippi, Sybil Pittman Estess shares the history of her state and the lessons she's learned along the way, in pristine, beautifully rendered memories full of vivid characters who live and breathe.









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Mississippi Milkwater
by Sybil Pittman Estess
ISBN: 
978-1943306206

Travels of a Texas Poet
Volume One

TRAVELS OF A TEXAS POET
VOLUME Two

Dave Oliphant

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The travel memoirs of poet Dave Oliphant, adventuring through the US, Spain, England, and Scotland. Oliphant keeps his poetic sensibility in focus reflecting on culture, history, language--and life.
Travels of a Texas Poet, Volume One
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 978-1943306190

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Travels of a Texas Poet, Volume Two
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 978-1943306213​

2018: Found Poems and Weather Reports

Lyman Grant

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​2018 is a poetic march through the stirring calamity of our times and its people in a single year, day-to-day. Real life problems of broken pipes, marriages, love, school shootings, higher education instructing, child raising, women's rights, racism, wildfires, politics and the force of nature show a dislocated nation in turmoil.









2018: Found Poems and Weather Reports
by Lyman Grant
ISBN: 
978-1943306183

thealmoststories

Dorothy Ellis Barnett

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"Whether Dorothy Barnett is contemplating a father’s indiscretions, sidestepping unpleasant youthful losses, or navigating scenes of a ten-year-old at a domino game free-for-all, her storytelling is the next best thing to living it. Her descriptions of bittersweet losses were enough to jog my own memories about the past. I read these fifteen stories (almost fiction and almost fact, as Ms. Barnett calls them) in one sitting at four in the morning. They are a wonderful teaser for what I hope will be many more stories to come. A must-read book!"
--Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman and Holy Roller




thealmoststories
by Dorothy Ellis Banrett
ISBN: 978-1943306046​

Bly's Dust

Dorothy Ellis Barnett

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"Dorothy Ellis Barnett’s savvy work mirrors a life lived in the service of art. Her fine diction and syntax, 'the best words in the best order' (Coleridge), reveal a poet who misses nothing remaking a world she has learned to see so well. Nor does she remain silent about being engagé in our political climate. And it is thedifferences in her poems—never a sameness—that propel her toward excellence."
— Ken Fontenot, author of For Mr. Raindrinker





Bly's Dust
by Dorothy Ellis Barnett
ISBN: 978-1943306138


Austin: A Poem

Dave Oliphant

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"Written with knowledge and sympathy, the poem contains a delightful tangle of details. Lyndon Johnson, Elisabet Ney, Peter Flawn, Custer, O. Henry, and Joseph Jones (the sage of Waller Creek)--public figures and personal friends interact in the city of Oliphant's imagination....A lengthy proem, set at the grave of Stephen F. Austin in the State Cemetery, contains a brilliant passage about Austin in prison.... The oblique narration is kept on track with masterful transitions....[T]he language is carefully crafted, with interesting and often beautiful sound-play in virtually every line."
 --John Herndon, Austin American-Statesman


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Austin: A Poem
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 
978-1943306107

Old Men on Tuesday Mornings

Lyman Grant

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Lyrical poetry on the process of aging and the transition from one life-stage to another, on the passing of time and its relentless impact on masculinity and the male image, and on on the place of the solitary individual in 21st Century America.






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Old Men on Tuesday Mornings
by Lyman Grant
ISBN: 
978-1943306084

The Hero's Fall I Fell For: Jazz Poems

Dave Oliphant

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With these poems devoted to jazz, Dave Oliphant offers a testament to the variety and significance of the art form and its artists. These poems are an attempt to pay homage to the art of jazz and to its musicians, whose lives and performances have long been a source of pleasure, inspiration, and solace.






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The Hero's Fall I Fell For: Jazz Poems
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 
978-1943306091

BACKYARD VOLCANO: AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF THE HEART

kathryn Lane

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These stories help define the world of the Texas-Mexico Frontier--an explosive world where lives break, loves shatter, and healing happens. Kathryn Lane, a native of Mexico, explores this world, leading readers on a journey through time and geography with the promise of magic and transformation.






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Backyard Volcano: And Other Mysteries of the Heart
by Kathryn Lane
ISBN: 978-1943306046​

Between Two Gardens

Laura Quinn Guidry

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A native of New Orleans, with deep roots in south and central Louisiana, Laura Quinn Guidry lived and worked as a healthcare administrator in Houston for years. Then tragedy changed her life and her amazing poems began. Grief and Gratitude are the "two gardens" this poet moves between. These are poems of love, loss, recovery, lived life, and abundant nature.






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Between Two Gardens
by Laura Quinn Guidry
ISBN: 978-1943306053​

U.S. AND THEM: THE RE-ENCHANTMENT
​OF A COLD WAR CHILDHOOD

Patricia Bjorklund

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In this memoir of growing up in the 1960s Cold War, Patricia Bjorklund narrates a girlhood filled with John Birch Society activism, racial tensions, concepts of sin and hell, and the ominous and omnipresent fears of nuclear apocalypse--and, conversely, the glowing redemptive powers of hope and happiness.







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U.S. and Them: The Re-Enchantment of a Cold War Childhood
by Patricia Bjorklund
ISBN: 978-1943306022

Maria's Book

Dave Oliphant

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A book forty-one years in the making, written between 1975 and 2016, Dave Oliphant's MarIa's Book presents what Douglas Flaherty has called "a delicately passionate record of an internationally conspired love affair. Oliphant's poems to his wife are valentines for the ages."






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Maria's Book
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 978-1943306015

For Mr. Raindrinker: A Novel of New Orleans

Ken Fontenot

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Meet Kent Soileau, a young man from a Cajun-speaking New Orleans family. Kent lives an upside-down life as a professional job-hopper and as an inmate of a nut house. He has assembled an impressive resume of diverse and comical experiences, from being a driver for Mississippi River-boat pilots, to a French Quarter bartender, to a genetics research associate. Kent is a true searcher, whether searching for food, a place to stay, happiness— or the meaning of life. Thanks to his friendship with the indomitable Mr. Raindrinker, Kent’s life takes some amazing but good turns. Not since John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces have readers been taken on such a big and easy ride through America’s greatest city.

For Mr. Raindrinker
by Ken Fontenot
ISBN: 978-0990863274

ABWW14

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​An anthology of poetry and prose by the award-winning instructors and participants of the 2014 Alamo Bay Writers' Workshop, which met in Seadrift, Texas. Writers include Lee Meitzen Grue, Lowell Mick White, Kathryn Lane, and Diane Wilson.





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ABWW14

Edited by Lowell Mick White
ISBN: 978-0990863267

memories of texas towns and cities

Dave Oliphant

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In this book of poetry, Dave Oliphant examines the Lone Star State from border to border focusing on its history, its cities, its towns--and, especially--on its people.

"Oliphant, walking through the events and places of his own life, walks as well through the continuing presence of the past...[F]ew of us are likely to notice a book-length poem in a meditative mode which examines one man's history and plays it against, in complex and intricate fashion, the history of his city and state....



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Memories of Texas Towns and Cities
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 978-1943306169

Blood at the Root

Lee Meitzen Grue

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Blood at the Root is a quirky novel set in southern Louisiana, a fly-on-thewall look at an aspect of New Orleans culture that borders magic, imagination, sex, and the sisterly bonds that stretch beyond death. If Blood at the Root feels authentic, that is because Lee Grue is a true authority on New Orleans, having been steeped in the pungent atmosphere of the city for most of her life. Lee Grue writes what she knows: a festinating tale betwixt Camilla Jane, High John the Conqueror, and Creeping Jesus.


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Blood at the Root
by Lee Meitzen Grue

ISBN: 978-0990863236

Art Stronger than hate!

Issa Nyaphaga

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 In Issa Nyaphaga's new book, Art Stronger than Hate!, the former artist for the French magazine Charlie Hebdo offers a visual commentary on our current political, social, and economic world, arguing for Free Speech rather than Hate Speech. Art Stronger than Hate! is evidence that art can save lives and inspire the human spirit.



Art Stronger Than Hate!
by Issa Nyaphaga
ISBN: 978-0990863243


Like That: New and Selected Poems

Sybil Pittman Estess

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In this collection of poetry, Sybil Pittman Estess takes readers on an intensely personal journey, a deep exploration of life in contemporary America. "These are poems of witness," says 2008 Texas Poet Laureate Larry Thomas. "...of witness to a life fully lived, of witness to birth, friendship, death, and the unforgiving pain of loss; and of witness to a world rife with the wounds of global warming, the violence of guns, yet a world still teeming with transient beauty."



Like That: New and Selected Poems
by Sybil Pittman Estess

ISBN:
978-0990863229

The Cowtown Circle

Dave oliphant

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Dave Oliphant's thirteenth book of poetry, The Cowtown Circle, is divided into six sections, moving from an eclectic gathering of poems devoted to nature, topical issues, and the imprisonment of captured WWII German soldiers in Hearne, Texas, to a section of María Poems (a series begun in 1976) and to sections on grandchildren and a visit to New York City, on music (classical, jazz, and Indian), on U.S. Presidents, and on a group of modernist Texas artists active during the Second World War.



The Cowtown Circle
by Dave Oliphant
ISBN: 978-0990863212

Janie's Garden

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Meeting to discuss their work in a beautiful, quiet, bayside garden in Seadrift, Texas, the instructors and participants of the 2014 Alamo Bay Writers' Workshop resolved to write poems about their experiences. This anthology is the result, featuring an Introduction by Diane Wilson and work by Dorothy Barnett, Linda Caplin, Linda Dane, Graciela Fleming, Lee Meitzen Grue, Gina Harlow, Julie J. Johnson-Jones, Diane Kramer, Kathryn Lane, Barbara Williams Lewis, Bob Lindsey, Jay Minton, Aubrey Parker, Sophie Rousmaniere, Janie Waghorne, Hazel Ward, and Lowell Mick White.

Janie's Garden
Introduction by Diane Wilson
Edited by Lowell Mick White
ISBN:
978-0990863205

ABWW13

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Poetry, fiction, and memoir from the participants and instructors of Alamo Bay Writers' Workshop, Austin 2013. Featuring work by Rebecca Byrd Bretz Arthur, Linda Caplin, Lee Edwards, Grace Fleming, Ken Fontenot, Lori Spence Galloway, Lee Meitzen Grue, Larry Heinemann, Diane Kramer, Kathryn Lane, Barbara Lewis, Kathryn Millan,  Stephanie Moore, Daniel Peña, Tomás Salas, Reji Thomas, Javier VanWisse, Claudia Voyles, Hazel Ward, Lowell Mick White, Diane Wilson


ABWW13
Edited by Lowell Mick White
ISBN: 
978-0615950570