Speak To The Mountain The Tommie Waites Story

Dr. Bessie W. Blake, a widely known and respected educator, is an adjunct professor of English at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York, and a recognized expert on adult learning. Her lecture tours have carried her to every corner of the United States and abroad to countries like England, Scotland and Senegal. Until two years ago, she served as the Academic Dean of the College of New Rochelle’s School of New Resources. During her tenure as Dean, she established the Rosa Parks Campus in Harlem and the Gordon Parks Gallery in the South Bronx. In addition, Dr. Blake has done extensive work with historically Black colleges. Her service on Boards of Directors include the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, the National League of Nursing Board of baccalaureate and Higher Degree Programs and The Rosa and Raymond Institute for Self-Development. Dr. Blake’s formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse in east Texas and continued with her graduation from Booker T. Washington High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. She received her foundation in literature from two historically Black colleges: the Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Southern University and the Master of Arts in American Literature from North Carolina Central University. A Doctorate of Education focused on writing and the composing process from Columbia University’s Teachers College was followed by a postdoctoral Certificate of Lifelong Learning from Harvard University. She says, “More powerful than the educational influences in my life was the impact of my mother, Tommie Waites. Her resilience in the face of adversity was a road map for my success.” Dr. Blake resides in Queens, NY with her husband, Prof. James Blake. They are the proud parents of four children and six grandchildren.

Mike O'Connor, born in Aberdeen, Washington, is a poet, writer, and translator of Chinese literature. For 12 years, he farmed and worked in the woods before pursuing Chinese studies and a journalism career in Asia for fifteen years. He is the author of nine books of poetry, translation, and memoir. His most recent publications include IMMORTALITY (2010) and UNNECESSARY TALKING: THE MONTESANO STORIES (2009), both from Pleasure Boat Studio. O'Connor is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2003-4); an International Writers' Workshop Fellowship, Hong Kong, (2006); and a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship (2009). He currently serves as publisher of Empty Bowl Press in Port Townsend, a writers' co-operative, and caretakes forest land on the Big Quilcene River.

Ken Harvey has recently completed a memoir ("A Passionate Engagement") about the same-sex battle in the United States that The Boston Sunday Globe hailed as "MOVING" and "POWERFUL." His collection of stories, "If You Were With Me Everything Would Be All Right," was the winner of the "Violet Quill Award" for best new gay fiction. It was also listed as "a book if note" by the Lambda Literary Review and was a #3 bestseller on the insideout.com book club. The book has been translated into Italian. Ken lives in Boston and Toronto.

Michael Burke has traveled through a number of careers since he graduated from college. The first was as an astronomer, working at observatories in the U.S., Hawaii and Iran. He then went back to school to obtain a Master’s Degree in City Planning. He worked in New York City’s Planning Department and later became an Assistant Professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture and City Planning. Michael changed direction again when he found a loft in Soho and began to paint. He has been an artist for more than 30 years - painting, drawing, and creating aluminum books and sculpture. He has exhibited the work extensively in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. Although he has written and published poetry over the years, Michael has only recently arrived on the mystery scene. He has published three mystery novels starring detective Johnny “Blue” Heron; Swan Dive, Music Of The Spheres, and Out Of Mind.

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. LGBT Studies. THE END OF THE SHERRY recounts what happens to a young American who finds himself abandoned in southern Spain in 1965 with a dog and a dubious car, who stumbles into work as a nightclub pianist and stays for three improbable years. His own adventures blossom into a portrait of provincial Spain toward the end of the Franco dictatorship—bleakness that breaks into unexpected hilarity even as the author discovers his calling as a person and a writer. His return to Spain after the death of Franco puts it all into perspective.

Fiction. Translated from the Swedish by Laura Wideburg. Sudden murder and the resulting psychological tension are the hallmarks of Inger Frimansson's acclaimed thrillers. In ISLAND OF NAKED WOMEN, Tobias, an author of mystery novels, must return to the family farm after his father became incapacitated due to a fall from the hayloft. Tobias resents his father's judgmental attitude, but he finds the allure of his father's young wife Sabina hard to resist. Meanwhile, Hardy, the hired hand, scoffs at Tobias's city ways, while encouraging Sabina's mentally challenged son Adam to turn into an Elvis impersonator; and Ingelize, who runs a nearby riding school, finds Tobias irresistible. The rural life becomes increasingly claustrophobic for Tobias, but before he can return to the city, death strikes a hard blow and chaos ensues.

Luísa Coelho, born in Angola, has Portuguese nationality. She holds a B.A. in Germanic Philology from the Classic University of Lisbon, an M.A, in Political Philosophy from the Portuguese Catholic University, and a Ph.D. in Portuguese Studies from the University of Utrecht, Holland. She did postdoctoral work in Post-Colonial Studies in the South Atlantic (Portugal-Angola-Brazil) at the University of Bologna, Italy. She has taught in several countries, including Holland, Austria, France, Brazil, and Angola. Since 2010 she has been teaching Portuguese language, culture, and literature at the Freie Universität and Humboldt Universität in Berlin, Germany. Maria do Carmo Eggers de Vasconcelos and Philip Eggers hold Ph.Ds in English and are professors of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. Dr. de Vasconcelos was born in Portugal, grew up in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, and spent time in Luanda, London, Munich, Paris, Jakarta, Denpasar, and other cities. Along with degrees from the National Conservatory of Lisbon and from the Classic University of Lisbon, where she also completed postgraduate studies in American Culture and Literature, she received certificates in language, literature, art, and philosophy from various other European universities. In New York City, she also trained in conflict resolution, completed studies in gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality, and earned a Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Previously, with Dr. Dolores Deluise, she translated the novella Monique by Luísa Coelho into English from the Portuguese. Dr. Eggers, a native of Indiana, received his B.A. from Columbia College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. For eighteen years he was the elected chairperson of the English Department at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Dr. de Vasconcelos and Dr. Eggers teach a variety of writing and literature courses, including world literature, post-colonial literature, the short story, modern poetry, autobiography and many others. They have published articles, scholarly books, textbooks, and translations. Together they are proficient in a number of European languages. Their careers and destiny brought them together; they are married and enjoy working together and exploring the U.S.A., other countries and cultures.

In 1942, the Japanese military invaded America, occupying the Aleutian island of Attu for nearly two years. This work is based on the author's interviews with invasion survivors and his own extensive research.