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Rubble Square explores the power of art and the fickleness of art history across three millennia of artifacts, paintings, photographs, architecture, and film. In both traditional and experimental forms, these ekphrastic poems interrogate timeless questions.

Karla, or The Weight Liftress is her portrait drawn in a series of five sketches, first as a student athlete, then as a young woman in a dead-end job, then as a partner in a happy marriage, then as an adventurer in Paris, and finally as an old woman reviewing her life from a bed in a dilapidated nursing home.

With its roots in a true but little-known incident involving the aerial bombing of a Midwest powder production plant in 1969, Summer of Rain, Summer of Fire is a family conflict that illuminates the struggle between conservative and liberal, between conformity and independent thought. It portrays the effects of a war that was fought not only on foreign soil, but in living rooms in the middle of America. Above all, Summer of Rain, Summer of Fire is an illumination of the timeless conflicts on the battlefield of the human heart. It's the spring of 1967, during the turbulent protest days of the Vietnam War. Eighteen-year-old Phil Keyhoe takes a summer job mowing lawns at the Strongs Ammunition Plant, a place that manufactures powder for use in the Vietnam War. His father, Karl, a powerful security supervisor at the plant and World War II hero, has arranged the job for Phil. When Phil's father faces a medical crisis, Phil is forced to put his college plans with Mariah, a rebellious new love interest, on hold and work full time in the gunpowder production lines. Meanwhile, Mariah joins a radical anti-war group and becomes involved with its charismatic leader. As her commitment against the war intensifies, she plans to orchestrate a major protest against the Strongs Plant. Phil is caught in a web of indecision and must choose between his loyalty to his father and his feelings for Mariah. The choice he finally makes not only affects him, but his father and mother, the plant, and the entire town. > "This novel captures those small, powerful details that combine to produce an indelible image of one of the most wrenching eras in our nation's history. Bill Meissner has the storyteller's gift for creating living characters, living speech, living emotions, living drama. The novel will not only entertain--in the highest sense--but will also touch the reader's heart." --Tim O'Brien, National Book Award winner and author of The Things They Carried "A storyteller with remarkable gifts." > At the center of this compelling novel is the Keyhoe family-- stern Karl at the helm, sensitive teenage son, Phil, and the quietly heroic and eminently likeable Frances, wife and mother, holding the family together--each of them trying to do what's right, motivated by duty and love. Those tensions propel this beautifully crafted and, at times, gently funny novel--a story of families and community in conflict, cultural upheaval, and, ultimately, hope for change. --Shannon Olson Author of Welcome to My Planet and Children of God Go Bowling From the opening explosion to the ending, Meissner's new novel is full of surprises as it delivers one of the best stories ever written about the most divisive period in modern American culture. As he explores the fractures of our families and country from the war in Vietnam, he paints the anguish and heartbreak we are still struggling to heal from. Although the novel is historical, it reverberates with contemporary politics that have set us against each other. In brilliant prose, Meissner evokes both the beauty and the cruelty that are hallmarks of that time of liberation and challenging questions. This is Meissner's finest portrait of the American heartland, torn, broken and resilient in its embrace of ordinary lives in the midst of extraordinary times. --Jonis Agee, author of The Bones of Paradise The compassion, sensitivity, and quiet exuberance of Bill Meissner's prose and storytelling abilities combine to make Summer of Rain, Summer of Fire a deeply moving and unforgettable tale. Set is small-town Midwestern America in the late 1960s, the novel both defines and transcends time and place with a grace and originality I find rare and utterly compelling. Sentence by sentence, detail by detail--a writer at the height of his powers. --Jack Driscoll, author of 20 Stories: New and Selected

What happens in Nebraska? Follow Cat Dixon's journey across the state as she explores misconnections, unrequited love, and longing. Dixon believes what happens in Nebraska doesn't stay in Nebraska; instead, her poems wade into the Missouri River and then launch readers into the clouds above, the ancient stars light years away, and eventually they plummet to the heartland's cornfields where the distance between people is simultaneously vast and fleeting.

"I Meant to Tell You kept me turning the pages late into the night." --Jennifer Coburn, USA Today best-selling author of Cradles of the Reich When Miranda Isaac's fiancé, Russ Steinmann, is being vetted for his once-in-a-lifetime dream job in the U.S. attorney's office, the couple worries that Miranda's parents' history as political activists in the Sixties could jeopardize Russ' security clearance. But the real threat emerges when Russ's future boss discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping nearly a decade earlier--an arrest she'd never revealed to Russ. Miranda tries to convince Russ she was only helping her best friend, Ronit--caught up in a nasty custody battle--take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she's not a criminal, she either makes matters worse or stumbles into more secrets. With everything she thought she knew upended, Miranda must face the truth about her family, herself, and her future marriage. I Meant to Tell You is "an absorbing, beautifully told story" of how tenaciously we hang onto family stories and what happens when we finally let go. FINALIST for the ERIC HOFFER BOOK AWARDS FINALIST for the SARTON AWARD FINALIST for the NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS (two categories)

"Sohrab Homi Fracis's innovative new collection tells a spectrum of stories under a paradoxical new umbrella category: True Fiction. Monotony is banished from this book. At a Florida coffee shop, an immigrant's voice opens up even as a hipster musician's shuts down. An underpaid bank teller in the age of ATMs is fired and goes postal. In the title story, on whose premise the book pivots away from realism, a professor recalls his favorite communication ever--and it's utterly silent. A loving husband and father finds himself inexplicably transformed into a woman. In another world, the protagonist simultaneously faces his end and a new beginning. A budding female messiah confronts a non-gendered godhead. And a bastard prince of ancient Turkey (whose legendary Persian name lives on in the author's) invades Persia to seek his father. Yet we can see ourselves in them all. Even as the resident magician in Five Points Coffee & Spice regales his fellow customers, Fracis's literary dexterity takes us on a darkly beguiling magic-carpet ride."--Publisher description.

"Inadequacies is a collection of stories, small in scope and large in impact. Each of Morris' short stories question identity, and examine the ways in which we are unavoidably ourselves. Spanning a range of stories and narrative approaches, the characters in these stories are unable to move forward without first coming to terms with the identities they struggle against."--Publisher description.

"Sam Drift is a college dropout who spends his days smoking pot, writing movie reviews, wallowing in the betrayal of the only girl he ever loved, and watching old noir flicks with his beloved cat, Audrey Hepburn. Life is perfect. But when Sam's editor forces him to write an article about the death of an exotic dancer outside an unpopular strip club, he suddenly finds himself tangled in a web of local politics and criminal enterprise. The plot thickens when Sam's ex-girlfriend comes to town to premiere a movie at a local film festival. Can Sam solve the mystery of the dead stripper and win back the love of his life? Or is Sam's delusional THC-riddled brain just acting out a Humphrey Bogart fantasy that doesn't actually exist?"--Back cover.

"Markers is an exploration of friendship and personal journeys by two public historians who first met in 1979 as overseers of the Official Texas Historical Marker Program of the Texas Historical Commission. The 'markers' they write about in this collection of reflective poetry speak to perceptions of place, memorable characters, life-changing encounters, quiet times, and shared perspectives of the past. These are the abiding landmarks of two friends who, after only three years as colleagues, traveled seemingly divergent professional paths that nevertheless crossed many times through the years, always in meaningful ways. Herein are some of the many stories they have shared along the way"--