Founded twenty years ago by poet, memoirist, and clinical psychologist Joan Cusack Handler, CavanKerry Press has published fine literary work by established and emerging writers focused on the pursuit of understanding what it means to be human through insightful, accessible writing. This unique collection looks back at CavanKerry's first two decades with excerpts from each of the one hundred books in its publishing catalog, featuring poems and memoirs that capture the heart of living-through life's joys, illnesses, and moments of both gratitude and challenge. This collection features work by renowned writers of contemporary poetry and memoir such as David Cho, Robert Cording, Ross Gay, John Haines, Joan Cusack Handler, Marcus Jackson, Gray Jacobik, January Gill O'Neil, Jack Ridl, Mary Ruefle, Maureen Seaton, Jack Wiler, Baron Wormser, and many others. Places We Return To is the perfect introduction to CavanKerry's catalog, representing the deeply resonant writing for which the Press is known. Several authors in the CavanKerry library have gone on to find acclaim as poets laureate, Pushcart recipients, and finalists in national prizes. Places We Return To is a collection of work of the highest caliber.

Freedom and awakening of an adolescent, Bronx bred, Irish Catholic girl

The Reader was co-sponsored and co-conceived by CavanKerry and LaurelBooks partner, The Arnold P.Gold Foundation for Humanism in Medicine. Publisher Joan Cusack Handler and Gold Foundation President and CEO Sandra Gold observed that patients, while waiting to learn about their physical health, typically are provided only pop culture magazines--perhaps entertaining but without the solace and comfort that literature provides. The Waiting Room Reader was designed to address that need by bringing fine and accessible writing to "keep the patients company." Here are uplifting and inspiring poems that focus on life's gifts - everyday pleasures: love and family, food and home, work and play, dreams and the earth. This collection, originally offered only to hospitals and physicians' waiting rooms, was received with great success and is now available to a wider audience.

A practicing psychologist and former marriage therapist unveils the role of parents, religion, children, illness and the emotional fiber of spouses on the treacherous terrain of marriage. Red Canoe is a valuable tool for professionals and a must read for couples.