Woven Stories

The Quechua people of southern Peru are both agriculturalists and herders who maintain large herds of alpacas and llamas. But they are also weavers, and it is through weaving that their cultural traditions are passed down over the generations. Owing to the region's isolation, the textile symbols, forms of clothing, and technical processes remain strongly linked to the people's environment and their ancestors. Heckman's photographs convey the warmth and vitality of the Quechua people and illustrate how the land is intricately woven into their lives and their beliefs. Quechua weavers in the mountainous regions near Cuzco, Peru, produce certain textile forms and designs not found elsewhere in the Andes. Their textiles are a legacy of their Andean ancestors. Andrea Heckman has devoted more than twenty years to documenting and analyzing the ways Andean beliefs persist over time in visual symbols embedded in textiles and portrayed in rituals. Her primary focus is the area around the sacred peak of Ausangate, in southern Peru, some eighty-five miles southeast of the former Inca capital of Cuzco. The core of this book is an ethnographic account of the textiles and their place in daily life that considers how the form and content of Quechua patterns and designs pass stories down and preserve traditions as well as how the ritual use of textiles sustain a sense of community and a connection to the past. Heckman concludes by assessing the influences of the global economy on indigenous Quechua, who maintain their own worldview within the larger fabric of twentieth-century cultural values and hence have survived everything from Latin American militarism to a tidal wave of post-modern change.

Tales I Have Woven is a collection of short stories that spin around the colorful fabric of life. The common threads of love, search for meaning, human choices, family values, tradition, change, environment, destiny and life's purpose are intricately contrived into a tapestry that blends into one. In The Stone House, Mr. So lived his life following the family values of honor and responsibility. He took care of his father's textile company and of his aging mother. Polistico was the respected tenor in a little village until the day of a big wedding in the story of Polistico. In Chrysalis the quiet town of Anao woke up hearing a bellowing voice of a strange creature. It was a historical town that whispered and was heard. And in Amapola, the fields of poppies in the valley made people leave and move. It was the restless need to chase and venture towards something that followed them. As the lives of these characters unfold, Elenita unveils her keen observation in the dynamic power of human sentiments, of love, compassion, purpose, and communal spirit. Tales I Have Woven is a propitious literary debut.

An empty screen, eerie serenade – who can resist woven tales sung by chiseled tongues? Woven Tales encapasulates selected poems from the Unspeakable Truths Series (Damnation Begins, 2007, and Baptism By Blood, 2009) and the Versified Series (Versified Darkness, 2008 and Versified Delusions, 2012).

SIX STORIES. ONE EPIC JOURNEY When the world as you know it is rent into shreds, you either survive or you die. When your friends, your neighbors, members of your own family starve to death in front of your young eyes, only a steel drive to live will rescue you. If your government turns on you, killing everyone in your community, only foresight and the guts to listen to it will help you. When widespread poverty and lack of hope destroy the fabric of reality, only fortune can save you. When you survive any or all of these traumatic events, you live to create the next generation. Cam and Tessa are the next generation. Raised by Holocaust survivors and refugees in New York City in the 1970's, Tessa battles not only her own demons but those her family faced. She takes nothing for granted and relies only on herself as she navigates a dangerous and dark period of time in the city. Cam needs to escape the midwestern upbringing that began with his mother's journey from somewhere in Eastern Europe to an orphanage in Iowa and with his great grandfather's early life in Ireland; and ends with his father's spiraling and destructive behavior. Directionless and lost, Cam takes a risk to find his way. At a chance meeting, they discover that they are kindred spirits; and against the push from both sides, they clasp hands and decide to face whatever may come together. Woven dives deeply into events you learned about in history class and makes them personal. Written as a series of novellas, this book weaves the lives of four very different families into one story, showing that out of overwhelming adversity can come strength, hope, and a future no one predicted.

Weaving, as a traditional technique of interlacing yarns or fiber, has a long history and has been given many forms over the years. This book will invite 20 DIYers, designers, artists, and craftsmen to talk about their weaving stories. These projects are diverse, from traditional basket weaving in eastern Asia, woven wall hangings made by self-taught craftspeople, to artistic pieces done by designers and artists. Readers are able to look into the production process and detailed patterns of these projects. Featured projects include: Bamboo, grass, and rattan weaving; DIY textile weaving, such as wall hangings, rugs, and home decorations; artistic installations.

Does the Bible feel confusing and complicated to you? Perhaps some of it feels familiar, but overall, does it feel impossible to navigate? Maybe you recognize the stories, but you just don’t know how they all fit together. Yet they do fit together. In her unique and remarkably readable way, Angie Smith—bestselling author of What Women Fear, Mended, I Will Carry You, and Seamless—helps you tie together all the loose, disconnected threads you find in the Bible, weaving them into a beautifully crafted storyline. After reading Woven, when it comes to reading Scripture, you’ll go: From confused to confident From lost to knowledgeable From separate stories to the One they are all about Because once you see the big picture, you’ll see it on every page. Every time.

Argentinian scholar and writer Enrique Anderson-Imbert is familiar to many North American students for his La Literatura de América Latina I and II, which are widely used in college Spanish courses. But Anderson-Imbert is also a noted creative writer, whose use of "magical realism" helped pave the way for such writers as Borges, Cortázar, Sábato, and Ocampo. In this anthology, Carleton Vail and Pamela Edwards-Mondragón have chosen stories from the period 1965 to 1985 to introduce English-speaking readers to the creative work of Enrique Anderson-Imbert. Representative stories from the collections The Cheshire Cat, The Swindler Retires, Madness Plays at Chess, Klein's Bottle, Two Women and One Julián, and The Size of the Witches illustrate Anderson-Imbert's unique style and world view. Many are "short short" stories, which Anderson-Imbert calls casos (instances). The range of subjects and points of view varies widely, challenging such "realities" as time and space, right and wrong, science and religion. In a prologue, Anderson-Imbert tells an imaginary reader, "Each one of my stories is a closed entity, brief because it has caught a single spasm of life in a single leap of fantasy. Only a reading of all my stories will reveal my world-view." The reader asks, "And are you sure that it is worth the trouble?" Anderson-Imbert replies, "No." The unexpected, ironic ending is one of the great pleasures of reading Enrique Anderson-Imbert.

Locating worthwhile books for kids can be a challenge in our contemporary culture. How can a teacher, catechist, or parent find reading material these days that reflects moral values and/or teaches something about God? In Really Good Books For Kids, catechist and author Janaan Manternach meets that need head on by providing an invaluable reference that presents an outstanding selection of children's books, along with valuable reviews of their entertainment and educational value. She has organized this guide to help readers locate books by subject matter (e.g., Books That Raise Moral Consciousness, Bible Storybooks, and Poetry) or by religious theme (e.g., Resurrection Stories, Christmas Stories). This unique reference is an ideal resource for parents and for anyone else entrusted with the care and upbringing of kids--especially teachers and catechists looking for the right books to read to their pupils and add to their fibraries. And Really Good Books For Kids is a perfect Baptism or First Communion gift for parents.