personal narratives

“When did you realize poetry could be your companion? Your release?” 

In this episode of the Johnson County Library podcast Did You Hear, Dr. Randall Horton and Anishinaabekwe poet Louise K. Waakaa’igan discuss poetry both as a lifeline and as a discipline.  It’s a discussion between two people who share a gift for and love of poetry; but it’s also a discussion between two people who share a common language that only those who have been “inside” can fully understand.  

An unrelenting advocate for personal voice and perfect line breaks, Dr. Horton is equally passionate about eradicating the

A novice newspaper journalist recounts his experiences in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.  He’s never been a foreign correspondent; he’s never been a war correspondent.  So his reader will learn through him how to blindly set out to a war-torn country bereft of the simplest comforts…running water, for example.   The heart of the book is the story of Garcia, a social worker turned journalist, and his friendship with his Afghan interpreter, "Bro".  Each chapter is a series of vignettes drawn with care to illustrate the exhaustion of people ruined by and tired of war, but trapped by