Johanna Skibsrud Knihy

"On an imaginary island, one whose socio-economic divide runs deep, an insurrection is brewing. Over the course of a day, the lives of two women--one a rebel, one a diplomat--will be forever changed. Lota is a restless islander who works at a fish factory but is looking for a larger life. When she meets charismatic leader Kurtz, her life comes into sharp focus. Together, Kurtz's group of misfits plot to overthrow the island's occupying power. They plan to charge the embassy. They plan to capture Ø Com's outer station--the gateway to the entire empire's wireless operations. History does not--Kurtz urges her soldiers--have to repeat itself. As the past and future converge on this one day, a new world order is within reach. They cannot fail. Rachel is an anxious diplomat who is counting down the final hours of her service on the island. Her family has fled to the capital after escalating racial tensions have put her daughter's safety in jeopardy. She is eager to follow despite the fissures that are starting to show in her marriage. But when she arrives at the embassy and hears gunshots ringing through the corridors, she knows this is no ordinary day. As the hours lengthen and Rachel is held captive, she begins to wonder if she'll ever see her loved ones again and what her complicity has meant as the sinister operations of her government start to surface. Part fantasy, part parable, Island deftly explores essential questions of history and responsibility. It asks us to consider our legacies of cultural imperialism and the hidden costs of our wireless world. Urgent, illuminating, and thought-provoking, it asks us how we can imagine a future that does not run along the exact same lines as the past."-- Provided by publisher

Exploring the essential connection between poetry and humanity, this book delves into how poetry enhances our understanding of the human experience. It examines the ways in which poetic expression can deepen our insights into emotions, relationships, and existence itself, offering a fresh perspective on the transformative power of verse.

A collection that features the following stories: A young maid at a hotel in France encounters a man who asks to paint her portrait, only later discovering that he is someone other than who we think he is; and, more.

Arthur and Douglas Sinclair, an impoverished veteran and his son, make the arduous journey from Kansas to join the march. Alden and Sutton Kelly, the rebellious children of a powerful Washington judge, become involved with the veterans' struggle, causing an irreparable rift in the Kelly family.

Johanna Skibsrud's debut novel connects the flooding of an Ontario town, the Vietnam War, a trailer in North Dakota, and an unfinished boat in Maine. Parsing family history, worn childhood memories, and the palimpsest of old misunderstandings, Skibsrud's narrator maps her father's past.

From award-winning writer Johanna Skibsrud, Medium uses language as a bridge across experience, sensibility, and time. These deeply resonant and performative poems share the lives and perspectives of women who--in their roles as biological, physical, or spiritual mediums--have helped to shape the course of history. Reckoning with the dominant historical narratives of each woman's era, Skibsrud underscores the power of poetry to bring about new formulations for understanding the relationship between past and present, self and other. Helen of Troy, Anne Boleyn, Shakuntala Devi, Hypatia of Alexandria, Marie Curie, Chien-Shiung Wu: Medium interprets the voices of women vilified by history, silenced by famous husbands, forced into sex work, or wrongly accused. Each exploration begins with a brief vignette inspired by the "vidas" that once began manuscripts of the troubadours. Both vidas and poems provide lyrical reinterpretations of real and imagined elements in the lives of scholars, scientists, computer engineers, mystics, entrepreneurs, artists, nurses, and other leaders.