Other books that might interest you

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  The Arctic Diaries

  Melissa Davies

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  A poetic project of preservation and sense of place. Rich imagery and language dives deep into the lives of coastal communities in the far north of Norway, from debut poet, Melissa Davies
  When the fisherman dies Fleinvær stories spill out silver strings, like guts from a spring catch. But between these pages they survive.
  The Arctic Diaries chart generations of the characters, myths and misremembered details that make up the oral traditions of a windswept archipelago in Norway's far north. Created over a single arctic winter, using stories gathered from the last surviving fisherman of Langholmen, this collection of poems are part history, part field notes, exploring what role the outsider plays in preserving the experience of another.

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  Grenfell: in the words of survivors

  Gillian Slovo

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  The early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017. The north-west corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A twenty-four-storey residential tower. The scene of a national tragedy.
  This powerful verbatim play is drawn from the testimony of residents – a group of survivors and bereaved – at the heart of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It reveals the impact of the multiple failures that led to the most devastating residential fire in the UK since the Second World War, and asks: how do we stop this ever happening again?
  Startling, urgent and deeply moving, Grenfell: in the words of survivors explores the courage and resilience of an ill-treated community and their continued campaign for justice.
  Created from interviews by Gillian Slovo, the play was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in July 2023, co-directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike.
  10% of the net proceeds from sales of this book will be donated by the publisher to the Grenfell Foundation, who support the bereaved and survivors in the aftermath of the fire, as well as help them ensure Grenfell is remembered long into the future.
  'Moving, heartfelt and important… a powerful piece of verbatim theatre that demands empathy, not sympathy' - Evening Standard
  'An engulfing experience… harrowing but not sensational… Slovo's play is new and important. It is not only that she uses the words of survivors; it's that they are her collaborators. The result is an inquiry of the best sort – the most humane kind – on stage' - Observer
  'A tour de force… deeply humane… infinitely more meaningful than dispassionate news footage… a tremendous piece of theatre' - Time Out
  'Gripping… shocking… piles up devastating detail… an ensemble masterpiece' - Guardian
  'Powerful' - Telegraph
  
  'A visceral insight into a human tragedy' - The Times

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  Little Women (NHB Modern Plays)...

  Louisa May Alcott

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  Christmas Eve, 1862. With their father away on the frontline of the American Civil War, the four March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – journey into adulthood, each determined to pursue a life on their own terms. But growing up means contending with love and loss, as well as the myriad twists of fortune that shape a life.
  Published in 1868, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was an immediate critical and commercial success, and remains one of the best-loved novels of all time.
  This joyful and spirited adaptation was first produced at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre in 2022, directed by Brigid Larmour. An earlier version was staged at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 2011.
  It provides rich opportunities for any amateur company looking for an uplifting version of a classic story that's guaranteed to delight audiences.

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  14 Days & 40 Years - The Little...

  Natalie Anderson

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  Not all love is the same, which is one of the most peculiar truths in life. Your Love is as unique as the individual you feel it for. I think that’s one of the greatest paradoxes we will live through. It seems to me, there is little choice in how big it is, or how hard it hits. There’s no telling what it will do to you when you enter the arena, and that is why it can be a force we sometimes fight; because it has felt like a battle we’ve lost before. 
  Although it feels like you are powerless in Love, you aren’t powerless at the end of Love. You choose whether or not big Love crushes you, or if it shrinks for you to carry it in your pocket as a reminder of the greatness it once was. The desire to not be destroyed by Love is where I am. 
  This is a story of 14 days that coincided with my 40th birthday and a time I fell in Love. It was through a difficult turn of events that I got to step away from my uncomfortable life to experience turning 40 in Mexico; with someone I didn’t just love, but who I liked. So this is also a story about the importance of falling in Like. 
  For a long time I said if I ever shared this story, I’d have to call it fiction because it feels so personal. But eventually I realized it made more sense to just admit: it’s me. I’m the quiet naive girl in these pages who had barely begun to know herself and didn’t know how to communicate as well as she thought she did. I’m the one who was learning that Love can be complicated; while seeming simple to me. 
  One of the greatest lessons anyone learns, is knowing what it feels like to fall in love and experience connection. That was my greatest benefit; because I have been able to use that measure of connection ever since. One can break and fall apart in many ways, but it’s my opinion that until big love breaks you, a level of innocence remains. After that, you decide whether or not big love heals you. For me, it took this little trip of 14 days to finally benefit from the long journey of 40 years.

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  Born in the USA - Exploring...

  Hilda Doolttle, Louisa May...

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  Poetry. A form of words that seems so elegantly simple in one verse and so cleverly complex in another.  Each poet has a particular style, an individual and unique way with words and yet each of us seems to recognise the path and destination of where the verses lead, even if sometimes the full comprehension may be a little beyond us. 
   
  Through the centuries every culture has produced verse to symbolize and to describe everything from everyday life, natural wonders, the human condition and even in its more hubristic moments, the crushing triumph of an enemy. 
   
  In the volumes of this series we take a look through the prism of individual regions of the United States through the centuries and decades. 
   
  The United States may be many things: the world’s policeman, a bully, a shameless purveyor of mass market culture but it also, in its better moments, a standard bearer for truth, transparency, equality and the more positive qualities of democracy. 
   
  Little wonder that’s its poets are rightly acknowledged as wonders of their art.  Leading lights in the fight against slavery and for equality, even if the rest of the Nation is finding it problematic to catch up.   
   
  In this volume we have collected verse from poets born in Pennsylvania, one of the most famous states of the Union.  Its proud and illustrious history shines out through verse by such illustrious and venerated names as Stephen Vincent Benet, Louisa May Alcott, Wallace Stevens, Hilda Doolittle, Henry Van Dyke, and others as they explore its status, its nature and its role in shaping the world of verse.

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  Blues in Stereo - The Early...

  Langston Hughes

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  Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Fall 2024 Poetry Books From Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, a stunning collection of early works written from 1921-1927 and curated by award winning poet and National Book Award finalist, Danez Smith. Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became synonymous with American poetry, he was a seventeen-year-old on a train to Mexico City, seeking funds to pursue his passion. His early poems, beloved verses like “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” were written without formal training, often on the back of napkins and envelopes, and were inspired by the sights and sounds of Black working-class people he encountered in his early life.  Blues in Stereo is a posthumous collection of these early works, in which we see Langston Hughes like we’ve never seen him before. In the intimate pages of his handwritten journals,you will travel with Hughes outside of Harlem as he ventures to the American South and Mexico, sails through the Caribbean, and becomes the only Harlem renaissance poet to visit Africa. He celebrates love as a tool of liberation in his poems and journal entries. His songs included showcase musicality of verse poetry. And the book even includes a play he co-wrote with Duke Ellington with a full score that experiments with rhythm and structure. Blues in Stereo portrays a young man coming of age in a changing world. Page by page, a young, fresh-faced Hughes contends with matters beyond his years with raw talent. National Book Award nominated poet Danez Smith offers their insight and notes on themes, challenges, and obsessions that Hughes early work contains. Blues in Stereo foreshadows a master poet that will go on to define literature for centuries to come.  

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