This impressive collection brings together Mirikitani's strongest poems on a diversity of subjects: the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the fragility and challenges of family relationships, and the quest by people at the margins of society to claim justice, bread and dignity. Also included is her long inaugural essay in which she discusses how poetry can connect people and transform lives.

Janice Mirikitani is the author of three books of poetry. She has, over the past 35 years, created and directed programs for young people and people in need at Glide...

In Beyond the Possible, Reverend Cecil Williams, one of the most well-known and provocative ministers in the United States, reflects on his fifty years creating radical social change as the head of San Francisco's Memorial Glide Church.

Williams' innovations, such as HIV testing during services, have drawn protest from more conservative factions within the Methodist Church, but his work in the community has drawn praise from the likes of Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Warren Buffett.

Written with Glide Church founding pastor Janice Mirikitani, and with a foreword by...

Out of the Dust is a collection of new poems by activist, leader, poet, and editor Janice Mirikitani. After being named San Francisco's second Poet Laureate in 2000, this fifth book of poems from Mirikitani was written in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Drawing from her own background as a Sansei (third generation) Japanese American, Mirikitani reflects on the many ways we connect through the dust and our ability to rise and renew ourselves from this place. From the dust of the World Trade Center in New York to the retaliatory ashes of the dead in America's...