One summer, William Stafford's class at Centrum in Port Townsend decided to name their one-week community "Worthy Company," for they were aware of and held a common purpose in advancing the verbal epiphanies of each writer in their circle. In this book, that ritual and commitment live on. Writers and readers in our world are on a rough and challenging road, but they are often in good company, advancing together the idea that imagination, words and poems can make inroads against the dehumanizing violence of our time. Instead of consoling platitudes and aggressive certainties, this "worthy...

Becca J.R. Lachman lives with her husband Michael in SE Ohio, where she's spent the last ten years teaching, tutoring, and writing for Ohio University. Also a musician, Becca's original choral works are available through Heritage Press. Other books by Becca include The Apple Speaks (Cascadia Publishing House) and A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford (editor, Woodley Press). Her poems and essays have most recently appeared in So to Speak, Image, Brevity, and the anthology Mothering Mennonite from Demeter Press. She wishes to thank Vermont Studio Center, the...