More than one million people in the United States are fully blind or legally blind, suffering from impairments such as cataracts, glaucoma, retinal and macular degeneration, and eye loss. Visual impairment is not simply a practical handicap, however; individuals with vision loss can also suffer from psychological and emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. Dr. Cheri Langdell, a professor of English, and Dr. Tim Langdell, a clinical psychologist and digital media expert, take us through personal, psychological, sociological, and cultural perspectives on blindness, and-perhaps surprisingly-show us some of the benefits nearly blind and blind people have found after vision loss. These benefits include what some describe as heightening of the other senses, deepening spiritual sight, and stronger insights into the human condition. Through literature, media, and cinema across the ages, the authors focus attention on how the masses worldwide who are sighted view, and treat, the blind and legally blind. Coping with Vision Loss: Understanding the Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Effects also includes non-fiction written about and by the blind that gives great insight into their condition. The text explains what the visually impaired and blind can do to stay strong and live their lives to the fullest, as well as what family members and friends can do to help when needed, or to back off when one wants to be as independent as possible. Technological advances to assist the blind and legally blind are reviewed, as are websites for a host of organizations created to assist people with vision loss.

This edited collection explores the work of highly awarded and twice American Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin. Spanning Merwin's early career, his mid-career success, his Hawaiian epic, his eco-poetry, his lesser-known later poetry and the influence of Buddhism on his work, the volume offers new perspectives on Merwin as a major poet. Exploring his works across the twentieth and twenty-first century, this collection presents Merwin as a necessary and contemporary poet. It emphasizes contemporary readings of Merwin as an environmental advocate, showing how his poetry seeks to help each reader re-establish an intimate relationship with the natural world. It also highlights how Merwin's work presents our place in history as a pivotal moment of transition into a new era of international cooperation. This volume both celebrates his life and writing and takes scholarship on his work forward into the new century.

Although best known as a poet, Adrienne Rich is a versatile critic and a gifted writer of nonfiction and critical theory. Writing in the oracular tradition of Whitman and Dickinson, she affirms the will to change as an enduring commitment in her life and poetry.One of America's most outspoken literary figures, her courage in speaking out against injustice in the United States and worldwide has earned her the kind of international political following few American poets enjoy. This book is a much-needed comprehensive study of her life and career. It covers the full progression of her poetry from the beginning through her most recent work. In doing so, it clarifies her entire poetic output and illuminates her concepts of nation, the female body, power, and women's sexuality.

The volume covers the full progression of her poetry from the beginning through her most recent work. It clarifies her entire poetic output and illuminates her concepts of nation, the female body, power, and women's sexuality. In doing so, it draws on a vast body of literary, theoretical, and cultural scholarship. While the book offers a thorough study of Rich and her works, it also examines the critical reaction that her controversial writings have engendered.