"Tell me, Muse, of the man of many turns, who was driven / far and wide after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy" Twenty years after setting out to fight in the Trojan War, Odysseus is yet to return home to Ithaca. His household is in disarray: a horde of over 100 disorderly and arrogant suitors are vying to claim Odysseus' wife Penelope, and his young son Telemachus is powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, Odysseus is driven beyond the limits of the... more...

To breed or not to breed? That is the question twenty-eight accomplished writers ponder in this collection of provocative, honest, soul-searching essays. Based on a popular series at Salon.com, Maybe Baby offers both frank and nuanced opinions from a wide range of viewpoints on parenting choices, both alternative and traditional. Yes: "I've been granted access to a new plane of existence, one I could not have imagined, and would not... more...

For new sweethearts and long-wed couples alike, poetry is the ultimate gift of love. The classic love poems gathered in this elegant volume capture the full spectrum of romance—desire, longing, passion, and partnership. From Emily Dickinson's steamy declaration that "were I with thee / wild nights should be / our luxury!" to Langston Hughes's gorgeous image of love as "a ripe plum / growing on a purple tree," this is an exquisite collection of... more...

A new verse translation by award-winning poet Alicia Stallings of one of the foundational works of ancient Greece   The ancient Greeks revered Hesiod, believing he had beaten Homer in a singing contest and that after his dead body was thrown to sea, it was brought back by dolphins. His Works and Days is one of the most important early works of Greek poetry. Ostensibly written by the poet to chide his lazy brother, it recounts the story of... more...

Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala' the first modern Hindi poet of India, is all of sixteen and not conversant with the Khari Boli Hindi of the literateurs yet when his father gets him married and sends him off to his'in-laws' in Dalmau to fetch his bride. There is a strange man called Kulli Bhaat who claims descent from a family of bards and, despite his mother-in-laws, reservations about Kulli's sexuality. Nirala finds himself drawn to Kulli. Then an... more...

You Took the Last Bus Home is the first and long-awaited collection of ingeniously hilarious and surprisingly touching poems from Brian Bilston, the mysterious "Poet Laureate of Twitter." With endless wit, imaginative wordplay and underlying heartache, he offers profound insights into modern life, exploring themes as diverse as love, death, the inestimable value of a mobile phone charger, the unbearable torment of forgetting to put the... more...

You Took the Last Bus Home is the first and long-awaited collection of ingeniously hilarious and surprisingly touching poems from Brian Bilston, the mysterious "Poet Laureate of Twitter". With endless wit, imaginative wordplay and underlying heartache, he offers profound insights into modern life, exploring themes as diverse as love, death, the inestimable value of a mobile phone charger, the unbearable torment... more...

The Shahnameh, also transliterated as Shahnama (“The Book of Kings”), is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 “distichs” or couplets (2-line verses), the Shahnameh is the world's longest epic poem written by a single poet. It tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from... more...

Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav picks up from her previous international bestselling books including Love & Misadventure, Lullabies, and The Universe of Us, and sets sail for a grand new adventure.  This completely original collection of poetry and prose will not only delight her avid fans but is sure to capture the imagination of a whole new audience. With the turn of every page, Sea of Strangers invites you... more...

John Milton's major poems have long provoked wide-ranging judgments about the purposes of his biblical engagement. In this elegant and insightful study, Phillip J. Donnelly transforms our common perceptions about Milton's writing. He challenges the traditional assumption that the poet shared our modern view that reason is a capacity whose purpose is to control nature. Instead, Milton's conception of reason - both human and divine - is bound up with a... more...