National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Ancient Greek tale of Odysseus, cursed to wander the perilous world on his epic voyage home. The decade-long Trojan War has come to an end and Odysseus, the King of Ithaca instrumental in securing victory for the Greeks, finally sets sail for home. But his adventures are far from over. Cursed by the god Poseidon to wander the earth for ten years, he must battle monstrous creatures-even facing the land of the dead-before returning to Ithaca, where still more dangers await him.

The collected works of Anne Sexton showcase the astonishing career of one of the twentieth century's most influential poets For Anne Sexton, writing served as both a means of expressing the inner turmoil she experienced for most of her life and as a therapeutic force through which she exorcised her demons. Some of the richest poetic descriptions of depression, anxiety, and desperate hope can be found within Sexton's work.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton morphs classic fairy tales into dark critiques of the cultural myths underpinning modern society Anne Sexton breathes new life into sixteen age-old Brothers Grimm fairy tales, reimagining them as poems infused with contemporary references, feminist ideals, and morbid humor. Grounded by nods to the ordinary'a witch's blood "began to boil upke Coca-Cola" and Snow White's bodice is "as tight as an Ace bandage"'Sexton brings the stories out of the realm of the fantastical and into the everyday world.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: A gripping poetry collection mapping the thorny journey from madness to hope With her emotionally raw and deeply resonant third collection, Live or Die, Anne Sexton confirmed her place among the most celebrated poets of the twentieth century.

This collection of Emily Dickinson's work contains 444 of the nearly 1,800 poems that the prolific yet reclusive American poet privately penned during her lifetime. Although her bold and non-traditional writing style met with mixed reviews when first published, Dickinson is now considered one of America's greatest poets. Included here are such famous poems as "Because I could not stop for Death", "I'm nobody! Who are you'", and "Hope is the thing with feathers".

aeneas-the son of a human and Venus, the goddess of love-escapes the siege of Troy with a boat full of other Trojans, and sails for Italy where he is destined to found the city of Rome. A storm diverts them to Carthage, where aeneas meets Dido, the city's ruler and queen. He recounts the tale of his dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to her, and the two fall in love. After the gods remind aeneas that it is his fate to start a new city, he sails for Italy, leaving a devastated Dido behind.

King Hrothgar of Denmark has a problem: though his land prospers, his great mead-hall is plagued nightly by a horrible beast, Grendel, that pillages and kills his men. Leaving his home in Sweden, the warrior Beowulf sails to the king's aid. Beowulf and his men camp in the mead-hall to wait for Grendel. When the beast attacks, Beowulf grabs him by the claw and rips his arm off, making the beast flee in defeat. But Grendel isn't the only challenge facing Beowulf and, even in his native Sweden, adventures and dangers await.

During a dark night in December, a man sits in his room sadly thinking about his lost love, Lenore. Suddenly, he hears a tapping on the door, but no one is there. The noise moves to the window and the man opens it, only to see an ominous raven. The raven only has one thing to say and, as the night goes on, his haunting call of "Nevermore" begins to make the man more and more paranoid. This unabridged version of Edgar Allan Poe's eerie poem, first published in 1884, is accompanied by Gustave DorE's stunning woodcut illustrations.

"Tough talk for tough times. Silencer is both lyrical and merciless-Wicker's mind hums in overdrive, but with the calm and clarity of a marksman. You have to read these poems." -Tim Seibles, author of One Turn Around the Sun and finalist for the National Book Award A suburban park, church, a good job, a cocktail party for the literati: to many, these sound like safe places, but for a young black man these insular spaces don't keep out the news-and the actual threat-of gun violence and police brutality, or the biases that keeps body, property, and hope in the crosshairs.

"Without a Claim is a modern Book of Psalms. Indeed, the glory in these radiant sacred songs meld an art of high music with a nuanced love of the world unlike any we've heard before. No matter your mood upon entering this world you'll soon be grateful, and enchanted. In any such house of praise, God herself must be grateful."-Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Failure and The God of Loneliness Grace Schulman, who has been called "a vital and permanent poet" (Harold Bloom), makes new the life she finds in other cultures and in the distant past.