The Secret Gospel of Mark

The Secret Gospel of Mark
Author: Spencer Reece
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1644210436

An exquisite memoir of a life saved by poetry. "This is a portrait of the artist, narrated by a priest and a poet and a gay man with tenderness and searing honesty. Spencer Reece weaves the poetry he loves into how he has lived, the poetry as solace and relief, as confirmation and rescue, as redemption." —Colm Toíbín The Secret Gospel of Mark is a powerful dynamo of a story that delicately weaves the author's experiences with an appreciation for seven great literary touchstones: Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, James Merrill, Mark Strand, George Herbert, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. In speaking to the beauty these poets' works inspire in him, Reece finds the beauty of his own life's journey, a path that runs from coming of age as a gay teenager in the 1980s, Yale, alcoholism, a long stint as a Brooks Brothers salesman, Harvard Divinity School, and leads finally to hard-won success as a poet, reconciliation with his family, and the fulfillment of finding his life's work as an Episcopal priest. Reece's writing approaches the truth and beauty of the writers who have influenced him; elliptical and direct, always beautifully rendered.

The Clerk's Tale

The Clerk's Tale
Author: Spencer Reece
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2004-04-04
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0547346638

In a recent double fiction issue, The New Yorker devoted the entire back page to a single poem, "The Clerk's Tale," by Spencer Reece. The poet who drew such unusual attention has a surprising background: for many years he has worked for Brooks Brothers, a fact that lends particular nuance to the title of his collection. The Clerk's Tale pays homage not only to Chaucer but to the clerks' brotherhood of service in the mall, where "the light is bright and artificial, / yet not dissimilar to that found in a Gothic cathedral." The fifty poems in The Clerk's Tale are exquisitely restrained, shot through with a longing for permanence, from the quasi-monastic life of two salesmen at Brooks Brothers to the poignant lingering light of a Miami dusk to the weight of geography on an empty Minnesota farm. Gluck describes them as having "an effect I have never quite seen before, half cocktail party, half passion play . . . We do not expect virtuosity as the outward form of soul-making, nor do we associate generosity and humanity with such sophistication of means, such polished intelligence . . . Much life has gone into the making of this art, much patient craft."

The Road to Emmaus

The Road to Emmaus
Author: Spencer Reece
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2014-04
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0374280851

A collection of poems, centering around a middle-aged man who becomes a priest in the Episcopal Church, creates compelling dramas out of small moments.

The Arrangement

The Arrangement
Author: Sylvia Day
Publisher: Zebra
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1420153676

#1 international bestselling author Sylvia Day, hailed as "one of the most successful romance writers in the world," is joined by powerhouses Minerva Spencer and Kristin Vayden for a trio of sizzling historical romances that prove passion is timeless in...The Arrangement. Mischief and the Marquess by Sylvia Day - Available for the first time since 2007! Justin, the Marquess of Fontaine, and Lady Sophie Milton-Riley, are completely ill-suited to one another. But they will have to prove it in order to end to their mothers' insistence that they should marry. Yet the more they attempt to demonstrate how wrong their union would be, the more surprisingly, irresistibly right things feel . . . The Duke's Treasure by Minerva Spencer - First time in print! Plain, prickly Josephine Loman has loved Beaumont Halliwell, the Fifth Duke of Wroxton, since the first time she saw him. But the most beautiful man she's ever met had eyes only for Jo's erstwhile friend, who betrayed Beau's trust by marrying his brother. Beau hasn't been home in years, but when his brother dies in an accident, he must marry to save the impoverished dukedom. And Jo is the overlooked heiress who will turn his world upside down . . . The Inconvenient Countess by Kristin Vayden - First time in print! As the eldest in a poverty-stricken family of daughters, Miss Diana Katherine Lambson's only option is a marriage of convenience. Her only prospect is a rogue with a miserable reputation. Her only true desire: freedom. And that is exactly what Charles Brook, Earl of Barrington, is willing to offer, in return for the respectability their union will give him. He will even provide Diana with a contract. But does she dare entrust her future to a scoundrel? Does she dare not to?

Black in the Middle

Black in the Middle
Author: Terrion L. Williamson
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1948742888

An ambitious, honest portrait of the Black experience in flyover country. One of The St. Louis Post Dispatch's Best Books of 2020. Black Americans have been among the hardest hit by the rapid deindustrialization and

Time's Unfading Garden

Time's Unfading Garden
Author: J. Lee Greene
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1977-01-01
Genre: African American women poets
ISBN: 9780807102947