Soul Food Spirits

It should've been so easy...Blissful Breneaux has spent her career catching troublesome ghosts for a covert government agency. But all that changes the day she is fired.She has one shot to redeem herself- track down the biggest, baddest spirit the agency has ever known and haul him in. Too bad that ghost resides in the one place Blissful despises-Haunted Hollow, Alabama. It's the tourist attraction from hell. Blissful is knee deep in a foreign place-and it's not just the deer head trophies and the giant pickup trucks that are throwing her for a loop. When a local reveals he has information that could save her career, Blissful is all ears. But when he winds up murdered, Blissful becomes a suspect. Thrust into a murder mystery, Blissful teams up with a pair of amateur ghost-hunting grannies who know more about town dynamics than hunting spirits. Then there's the handsome bed and breakfast owner who's keeping more secrets than he's revealing. But Blissful is determined to discover what the murder victim knew. She'll hunt for clues all over town. Will the hunt save her career or place her in the clutches of the Haunted Hollow murderer? Find out now!

Soul food has played a critical role in preserving Black history, community, and culinary genius. It is also a response to--and marker of--centuries of food injustice. Given the harm that our food production system inflicts upon Black people, what should soul food look like today? Christopher Carter's answer to that question merges a history of Black American foodways with a Christian ethical response to food injustice. Carter reveals how racism and colonialism have long steered the development of US food policy. The very food we grow, distribute, and eat disproportionately harms Black people specifically and people of color among the global poor in general. Carter reflects on how people of color can eat in a way that reflects their cultural identities while remaining true to the principles of compassion, love, justice, and solidarity with the marginalized. Both a timely mediation and a call to action, The Spirit of Soul Food places today's Black foodways at the crossroads of food justice and Christian practice.

Salem West and Christel Cogneau have assembled a powerhouse lineup of Bywater Books and Amble Press authors to explore, subvert, and reinvigorate the bountiful feast of All Hallows phantasmagoria in this stunning collection. To the living, “soul food” has a specific meaning, history, and flavor. But what does “soul food” mean to the demon, ghost, fiend, witch, spirit, or vampire? How does their ingenuity and wit rise and fall in the taking, baking, erasing, embracing, and defacing of sustenance? West and Cogneau have challenged their authors to explore these and other questions in surprising and fascinating ways. Sometimes sweet and other times terrifying, sometimes warm or otherwise demented, these stories set the table for an otherworldly feast of delight and intrigue. Let the banquet begin . . . Soul Food Stories is packed with literary confections by award-winning authors, Anna Burke, Jenn Alexander, Jacob Budenz, Virginia Black, Cathy Pegau, and Ann McMan. Featured stories include: “The Five Year Revenge Agency” by Anna Burke “Tilly’s Tarts” by Jenn Alexander “Of the Air and Land” by Jacob Budenz “Ravenous” by Virginia Black “In Speary Wood” by Cathy Pegau “Perhaps You Missed My Signs” by Anna Burke “Ghost Writer” by Ann McMan

Most of these sensitive, engaging tales set in Canada explore the private tragedies and triumphs of Native Americans. The exception, "This Is History," offers a woman-focused account of the origins of Turtle Island (the Earth) in which Sky Woman (the moon) and her daughter/companion First Woman share the "naming" tasks central to creation tales. In "Wild Turkeys," a woman visiting her hometown is shaken when a chance encounter brings back vivid memories of an abusive relationship she fled. The title story tells of 80-year-old Elijah Powless, determined to see his twin granddaughters in the "big city." Armed only with innocent charm and a bag of homemade fry bread, he travels to Detroit, making friends and allies of all whom he meets. Several of Brant's (The Mohawk Trail) stories consider the need to come to terms with death: in "This Place," a medicine man whose "good medicine" ranges from butter tarts and old Hank Williams songs to a snakeskin and chanting helps a gay man afflicted with AIDS find the courage to "see death coming and run to meet it."

In the 400-Year History of Soul Food and Hospitality, Chef Dr. Willhoite has left no stone unturned as he takes us on a colorful journey from the coasts of West Africa to the hills and valleys of America. You will be educated, enlightened, enthused and empowered! This book has raised the bar and laid a foundation that will allow the African American contributions to forever be inscribed in the pages of history.

Avant-garde poetry for the spirit, mind, and soul.