The first general nonfiction title in thirty years from a giant of American letters, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive collection of Jim Harrison's essays and journalism--some never before published New York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was a writer with a poet's economy of style and trencherman's appetites and ribald humor. In The Search for the Genuine, a collection of new and previously published essays, the giant of letters muses on everything from grouse hunting fishing to Zen Buddhism and matters of the spirit, including reported pieces on Yellowstone and shark-tagging in the open ocean, commentary on writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and a heartbreaking essay on life-- and, for those attempting to cross in the ever-more-dangerous gaps, death--on the US/Mexico border. Written with Harrison's trademark humor, compassion, and full-throated zest for life, this chronicle of a modern bon vivant is a feast for fans who may think they know Harrison's nonfiction, from a true "American original" (San Francisco Chronicle).

In 1981, when he was thirty-three and had just caught what was then the largest British carp, Chris Yates wondered if he could now dream of capturing Redmire's Pool's real monster: the King. But far from the King itself, it was the idea of such a leviathan that hooked Chris that summer, playing him along the banks for one final season before releasing him back into the world. Chris's account of those pivotal months - originally published as The Lost Diary - recounts the final reckoning of an angler's long relationship with a beloved and mysterious pool. It is also a magical record of both familiar and freshly discovered waters, meetings with new friends, and unexpected encounters with creatures other than fish and presences that are not quite human.

Acerbic, wisecracking and hilarious, this is the definitive essay collection from New York legend and satirist, Fran Lebowitz, star of Martin Scorsese's hit Netflix series, Pretend It's a City. 'The gold standard for intelligence, efficiency and humour. Now and forever' DAVID SEDARIS 'She's inexhaustible - her personality, her knowledge, her brilliance, most of all her humour' MARTIN SCORSESE 'The rare example of a legend living up to her own mythology. She really is THAT funny' HADLEY FREEMAN Lebowitz turns her trademark caustic wit to the vicissitudes of life - from children ('rarely in the position to lend one a truly interesting sum of money') to landlords ('it is the solemn duty of every landlord to maintain an adequate supply of roaches'). And her attitude to work is the perfect antidote to our exhausting culture of self-betterment ('3.40pm. I consider getting out of bed. I reject the notion as being unduly vigorous. I read and smoke a bit more').

The point about poetry, my father used to say, is that you can't pretend. It has to come from the heart, in the same way that a painting reflects your own colours, dictated by your own emotions. It talks about something rational but has to include the warmth of your personal feelings as well as the intensity of rhyme and metre to make it work. Reading Yeats' poetry systematically for the first time I was looking for a relationship with a young woman, leading to the birth of a son brought up by another woman as her own.

The Diary of Losing Dad is the true story of a heartbroken woman trying to keep it together, and an intimate insight into what it is like to slowly, painfully lose someone you love. Actor and writer Emily Bevan recalls the surreal months leading up to her father's untimely death, during which she was filming a zombie series for television. Told from the perspective of a family who are stress-eating Percy Pigs, scrabbling around for change for the parking machine, and breaking down in the chemist because the pharmacist won't sell them two packets of cream, this moving account is interspersed with diary entries, poems and her daily scribblings. Here Emily renders scenes of hospital life - both devastating and life-affirming - together with anecdotes of her family rallying around this much-loved man, and the poignant memories of his constant and enduring presence. The book looks at how we each have our own unique response to tragedy: we all know that we are going to have to face death, yet we are so ill-equipped to deal with it.

From the editor of the celebrated anthology "Goodbye to All That"" Writers on Loving and Leaving New York," comes a new collection of original essays on what keeps writers tethered to New York City.
The "charming" ("The New York Times") first anthology" Goodbye to All That"--inspired by Joan Didion's classic essay about loving and leaving Manhattan--chronicled the difficulties and disappointments inherent in loving New York, while "Never Can Say Goodbye" is a celebration of the city that never sleeps, in the tradition of E.B. White's classic essay, "Here Is New York."
Featuring contributions from such luminaries as Elizabeth Gilbert, Susan Orlean, Nick Flynn, Adelle Waldman, Phillip Lopate, Owen King, Amy Sohn, and many others, this collection of essays is a must-have for every lover of New York--regardless of whether or not you call the Big Apple home.

April 2020: the country is deep in the first lockdown as a result of coronavirus. Young people are left rootless, without school or friends and isolated at home. In this enforced alienation a creative writing competition, 'Generation Lockdown Writes', was launched for young people from the ages of seven to 17. The only rule was that submissions to the competition had to provide an insight into what life was like for them in lockdown - to open up windows of homes and experiences across the UK. Some of Britain's finest authors for young people stepped in to judge the ten individual categories, and the entries flooded in. 'Generation Lockdown Writes' is the stunning final collection of the winning entries, chosen from over six thousand entries. The beautiful and varied pieces provide a unique insight into what life was really like for young people during this historical moment across Britain. We enter many different worlds, and are given a remarkable insight into the range of emotions that young people felt. From moments of fear to joy, this is a collection of writing that will linger in the memory for a long time. Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to BookTrust.

'It would be unfair to expect other people to be as remarkable as oneself' Wilde's celebrated witticisms on the dangers of sincerity, duplicitous biographers, the stupidity of the English - and his own genius. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Kojo Baffoe embodies what it is to be a contemporary African man. Of Ghanaian and German heritage, he was raised in Lesotho and moved to South Africa at the age of 27. Forever curious, Kojo has the enviable ability to simultaneously experience moments intimately and engage people (and their views) sincerely, while remaining detached enough to think through his experiences critically. He has earned a reputation as a thinker, someone who lives outside the box and free of the labels that society seeks to place on us.

Listen to Your Footsteps is an honest and, at times, raw collection of essays from a son, a father, a husband, a brother and a man deeply committed to doing the internal work. Kojo reflects on losing his mother as a toddler, being raised by his father, forming an identity, living as an immigrant, his tussles with substance abuse, as well as his experiences of fatherhood, marriage and making a career in a fickle industry. He gives an extended glimpse into the experiences that make boys become men, and the battles that make men discover what they are made of, all the while questioning what it means to be ‘a man’.

Charles D'Ambrosio's essay collection "Orphans" spawned something of a cult following. In the decade since the tiny limited-edition volume sold out its print run, its devotees have pressed it upon their friends, students, and colleagues, only to find themselves begging for their copy's safe return. For anyone familiar with D'Ambrosio's writing, this enthusiasm should come as no surprise. His work is exacting and emotionally generous, often as funny as it is devastating. "Loitering" gathers those eleven original essays with new and previously uncollected work so that a broader audience might discover one of our great living essayists. No matter his subject -- Native American whaling, a Pentecostal "hell house," Mary Kay Letourneau, the work of J. D. Salinger, or, most often, his own family -- D'Ambrosio approaches each piece with a singular voice and point of view; each essay, while unique and surprising, is unmistakably his own.