City Lights

Publishers
Fall / WINTER 2011

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Wise addresses whites anxiety about cultural shifts

displacing their power and privilege, and offers ideas
on how to move forward

D e a r W h ite A m eric a
Letter to a New Minority
by tim wise

The old notion that being white means

never having to think about it is being
challenged on all fronts, as whites are
increasingly having to wrestle with what it
means to be part of a fast-changing, truly
multicultural nation. In Dear White America
Tim Wise directly addresses white peoples
growing concerns about the demographic, political, and cultural shifts displacing
their power and privilege. Wise examines
the perfect storm of events fueling white
anxiety: the election of a black president,
economic insecurity at levels unseen by
whites as a group in 75 years, a popular
culture that reflects the nations diverse
cultural reality, and population shifts that make it increasingly difficult for whiteswho
have long been able to see themselves as the prototypical Americanto continue to
view themselves as the norm. Through stories, anecdotes and analysis, Tim Wise taps
current trends and addresses how to move forward as a unified, diverse and vibrant
democracy.
Tim Wise is one of the most prominent antiracist essayists, educators and activists in the
US. He is regularly interviewed by national media, including CNN, Tavis Smiley and by Tom
Joyner. He is author of many titles, including Colorblind and Between Barack and a Hard
Place. His blog is widely followed at www.timwise.org.

Sparing neither family nor self . . . he considers how the deck has always been stacked in
his and other white peoples favor . . . his candor is invigorating. Publishers Weekly
One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the
nation.Michael Eric Dyson

ISBN: 978-0-87286-521-1 $15.95 200pp January 2012 Paperback original SOCIAL SCIENCE / current events

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

Conversations with black leaders and activists exploring

current African American political and cultural life

R edefinin g B l a c k P o wer
Reflections on the State of Black
America
edited by joanne griffith

The Obama presidency represents a major

milestone in black history and the struggle
for political, economic and cultural equality in the United States. But howif at all
has the first black presidency helped move
things forward for people of color? Has
it delivered the change we can believe
in and deepening of democracy that
communities of color organized around?
What lessons from past struggles can be
applied to this unique historical moment
to advance multicultural democracy in the
U.S.? To explore these questions, BBC journalist Joanne Griffith interviews black intellectuals, leaders and activists and holds
roundtable discussions in several communities around the country. The result is a rich
and wide-ranging exploration of the hot-button issues facing African Americans today,
from religion and law to education and the economy, to the ever-shifting meaning of
Obamas contribution and impact. Both timely and rich in personal wisdom, Redefining
Black Power connects the dots between past civil rights struggle and the future of black
civic and cultural life in the United States.
Featuring Van Jones, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. Michelle Alexander, Julianne
Malveaux, Vincent Harding, Ramona Africa and others.
Joanne Griffith is an award-winning broadcast journalist who has reported, produced and
hosted programs for the BBC, NPR, Pacifica Radio, and elsewhere.

ISBN: 978-0-87286-546-4 $16.95 200pp February 2012 Paperback original SOCIAL SCIENCE / current events

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

Why anti-Muslim sentiment is on the rise in the U.S. and

Europe, and what can be done to stop it

C r u s a de 2.0
The Wests Unending War Against
Islam
by john feffer

In his official response to the attacks of

September 11th, George W. Bush invoked
the Crusades, tapping into a centurieslong history of fear and aggression. The
Wests longstanding perception of Islam
as a threat has taken on new and more
complex implications in the twenty-first
century, as years of migration and resulting demographic shifts have brought the
enemy within Western borders. Virulent
opposition to the planned construction of
an Islamic center near the 9/11 attack site
in New York City reveals much about the
intensity of public sentiments simmering
just below the surface. As the United States and countries across Europe struggle with
a resurgence of unexamined fear and antagonism, often directed against their own
citizens, the imperative for better understanding could not be greater.
Crusade 2.0 examines the resurgence of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West and its
global implications. John Feffer discusses the influence of three unfinished warsthe
Crusades, the Cold War, and the current war on terror. He presents a timely, concise,
and provocative look at current events in the context of historical trends and goes
beyond a clash of civilizations critique to offer concrete ways to defuse the ticking
bomb of Islamophobia.
John Feffer is co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies in
Washington, DC. He is the author of several books, including North Korea, South Korea. His
essays have been published in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He
has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and other international
news media.

ISBN: 978-0-87286-545-7 $15.95 200pp MARCH 2012 Paperback original POLITICAL SCIENCE

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

An earth-bound God whose powers are reduced to

petty acts of destruction attempts to reclaim his
lost seat in the heavens

E t h er
b y b e n e h r enreich

A bearded man in a badly soiled suit

known only as The Stranger wanders
an apocalyptic landscape on the fringes
of a dying metropolis, looking for a
way to get back on top. Thwarted and
rejected at every turn by old friends
and strangers alike even by the
author of this novel, whom he visits
repeatedly in unsuccessful attempts to
determine his own narrative his
impotence and rage are expressed in
acts of seemingly senseless violence.
The various characters he encounters
on his journey a pack of sadistic
boys, skinheads who beat him senseless, a deaf-mute woman who tries to
heal him, a sidewalk preacher and a
deranged man who identify him as The
One avoid or abuse him, or attempt to follow him.
Entertaining, disturbing and wildly intelligent, written with sinister humor and
great compassion, Ether reflects on the possibilities and consequences of forgiveness,
the problems of faith and the trials of creation.
Ben Ehrenreich is an award-winning journalist and fiction writer. His fiction has been published in McSweeneys, Bomb, and Black Clock, among other publications. His novel, The
Suitors, was published by Counterpoint in 2006 and received widespread critical attention.
This is his second novel.

Praise for Ehrenreichs first novel, The Suitors

Smart and postmodern in a puckish, Calvino-like sense. . . . Ehrenreich writes with an
ease and pure line-by-line skill thats rare. New York Times Book Review
Brilliant, and at the same time moving. Its a relief to know that literature exists yet.
Juan Goytisolo

ISBN: 978-0-87286-518-1 $13.95 144pp OCTOBER 2011 Paperback original FICTION

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

World-famous musician Ry Cooder

publishes his first collection of stories

L o s An g e l e s St o rie s
by ry cooder
c i t y l i g h t s noir

Los Angeles Stories is a collection of loosely

linked, tales that evoke a bygone era in
one of Americas most iconic cities. In postWorld War II Los Angeles, as power was
concentrating and fortunes were being
made, a do-it-yourself culture of cool cats,
outsiders and oddballs populated the old
downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill
and Chavez Ravine. Ordinary working folks
rubbed elbows with petty criminals, grifters and all sorts of women at foggy endof-the-line outposts in Venice Beach and
Santa Monica.
Rich with the essence and character of the times, suffused with the patois
of the citys underclass, these are stories
about the common people of Los Angeles,
a sunny place for shady people, and the strange things that happen to them. Musicians, gun shop owners, streetwalkers, tailors, door-to-door salesmen, drifters, housewives, dentists and pornographers, new arrivals and hard-bitten denizens all intersect
in cleverly plotted stories that center around some kind of shadowy activity. This quirky
love letter to a lost way of life will appeal to fans of hard-boiled fiction and anyone
interested in the city itself.
Ry Cooder is a world-famous guitarist, singer and composer, known for his slide guitar
work, interest in roots music, and more recently for his collaborations with traditional
musicians from many countries, including The Buena Vista Social Club. He has composed
soundtracks for more than twenty films, including Paris, Texas. Two recent albums were
accompanied by stories Cooder wrote to accompany the music. This is his first published
collection of stories.

ISBN: 978-0-87286-519-8 $15.95 224pp OCTOBER 2011 Paperback original FICTION / Short Stories

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

Sequel to his most famous book,

M o r e N o t e s o f a D i r t y O l d M a n FEATURES r a r e
Bukowski columns unseen in decades

M o re N o te s o f a
D irt y O l d M a n
The Uncollected Columns
by charles bukowski

edited, with an afterword, by

david stephen calonne

After toiling in obscurity for years,

Charles Bukowski found fame in 1967
with his autobiographical newspaper
column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man,
and a book of that name in 1969.
He continued writing this column,
from its inception in Open City to its
conclusion in High Times, through
the mid-1980s. More Notes of a Dirty
Old Man gathers many uncollected
gems from the columns 20-year
run. These stories and essays havent
been seen in decades, making More
a valuable addition to Bukowskis
oeuvre. Filled with his usual obsessionssex, booze, gamblingMore
features Bukowskis offbeat insights into politics and literature, his tortured relationships with women, and his lurid escapades on the poetry circuit. Highlighting his
versatility, the book ranges from thinly veiled autobiography to fictional tales of dysfunctional suburbanites, disgraced politicians, and down-and-out sports promoters,
climaxing with a long, hilarious adventure among French filmmakers, My Friend The
Gambler, based on his experiences making the movie, Barfly. From his days at the post
office through his later fame, More follows the entire arc of Bukowskis career.
Edited by Bukowski scholar David Stephen Calonne, More Notes of a Dirty Old Man
features an afterword outlining the history of the column and its effect on the authors
creative development.
Born in Andernach, Germany in 1920, Charles Bukowski came to California at age three and
spent most of his life in Los Angeles. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994,
having authored over 50 books.

ISBN: 978-0-87286-543-3 $16.95 225pp SEPTEMBER 2011 Paperback original FICTION

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

In Citizen Shurin has collected sixty-eight vibrant

new poems that are, by turns, romantic, visceral, edgy,
and unabashedly beautiful

C iti z en
by aaron shurin

Widely acclaimed for his lyrical language

and innovative verse, Aaron Shurin brings
the prose poem into new richness and
complexity in Citizen. Through shape-shifting
sentences and sensuous imagery he explores
the nuances of civic and domestic life, the
twists and turns of desire, and the mysterious
shimmer of objects. Traveling across the
borders of cities and the boundaries of form,
he crafts a dazzling vision of daily life as a
citizen of the imagination.
Aaron Shurin is the author of eleven books
including The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems,
which was chosen as one of Publishers Weeklys
Best Books of 1999, and most recently, King of
Shadows, a collection of personal essays, published by City Lights Books in 2008. He lives and works in San Francisco

PRAISE FOR AARON SHURINS POETRY

The Paradise of Forms represents the work of one of the most stunningly original and undercelebrated poets of a generation that includes Rita Dove, Michael
Palmer, Jorie Graham and Carolyn Forch. Aaron Shurins 20-year accumulation of
writing does much more than secure his lasting value in contemporary American poetry. . .. [Theres] a heroic reinvention of language in a world where its
too often exhausted .. . in a book that shows the price of vision and survival in
America. San Francisco Chronicle
I love the edges and handholds of sound [Involuntary Lyrics] provide, the quick
shifts of meaning, the deft sleight of mind echoes of everything from Shakespeare
on out. This is what an active poetry can do, then, make something in mind be
therenot just talked about and forgotten. Robert Creeley

ISBN: 978-0-87286-520-4 $10.95 88pp jANUARY 2012 Paperback original POETRY

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

From the bayous of Louisiana to the pavements of

San Francisco, Micah Ballard rounds up his haunting
Waifs and Strays

W a if s a nd Str a y s
by micah ballard

city lights spotlight series no.

The second full-length collection by

Cajun poet Micah Ballard, Waifs and
Strays recombines the allure, fixations,
and diction of the Metaphysical poets
with the alert and streetwise fracturing and instant amazements in contemporary San Francisco. Elegiac, elusive,
evocative, the poems roam an urban
landscape of bars, books, and chance
encounters where the ghosts of Congo
Square haunt the avenues of the Fillmore. As Ballard writes, it was all an
invention to ignore / the ordinary and
mistake the commonplace / above the
normality of everyday living. With the
wasted elegance of Baudelaire, and the handmade warmth of Semina, Waifs and Strays
is a rejection of all that is slick and disposable in 21st-century culture.
Born in Baton Rouge, Micah Ballard studied at New College of California, working with David
Meltzer, Joanne Kyger, and Tom Clark. He currently co-directs the MFA in Writing program
at University of San Francisco and co-edits Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions.

[H]is poems are an invocation of poetic ancestry, so as to lead the reader through a
gallery of visions imbued with elegance and charm. Ballards language is a classical
slang, as though the phantoms he conjures were at ease and thinking out loud.
Guillermo Parra

ISBN: 978-0-87286-544-0 $13.95 100pp SEPTEMBER 2011 Paperback original POETRY

C I T Y L I G H T S P U B L I S H E R S F A L L / W I N T E R 2 0 1 1

O R D E R I N G I N F O R MA T I O N
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C r u s a de 2.0
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