A fictional tale grounded in pure reality. Blank Check, an intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel, that takes place on a fictional U.S. island.After serving his country as an Army Ranger, high school principal Josiah Rollins quits in disgust over the broken educational system he can no longer serve. Little does he know this impulsive act would lead him to an unbelievable opportunity to change everything and serve his country and students in the way he had always dreamed....

Winner of the 2004 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry PrizeBlue on Blue Ground is about the body, desire, anxiety, and obsession—how what we want redeems and isolates us (and is sometimes used against us). These poems are artful yet accessible, lyrical yet direct, strange but recognizable.Smith's relentless self-examination, fear, sense of humor, and vulnerability are all laid to bare in crisp, precise language. From lonely observations, bizarre medical fascinations, emotion, loss, and h...

The Laws of NJustus: Introduction to the Cosmic Community - Dive into the cosmic realms with this enlightening exploration of universal principles and celestial wisdom. Through the guidance of Poetiiic NJustus, readers will embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and spiritual enlightenment.Through his work, Poetiiic NJustus offers a unique perspective on the nature of reality, the interconnectedness of all beings, and the cosmic laws that govern existence. He weaves togethe...

Journalist Aaron Smith's new memoir holds up a unique mirror to Australia. What he sees is at once amazing, disturbing and revealing. The Rock explores the failings of our nation's character, its unresolved past and its uncertain future from the vantage point of its most northerly outpost, Thursday Island.Smith was the last editor, fearless journalist and the paperboy of Australia's most northerly newspaper, the Torres News, a small independent regional tabloid th...

Forget what you think you know about sideshows and "circus" for within these pages unfolds a vibrant tapestry of 21st-century stories from performers born with disabilities who proudly claim the title "natural born." Journey alongside them as they navigate societal expectations, celebrate their unique bodies, and command the stage with breathtaking artistry and unyielding spirit.Discover why these extraordinary individuals choose to exhibit their talents in circuses like the inclus...

Bracken Hollow is a town built on quiet routines and unspoken rules. People mind their business. They trust the familiar. They believe the worst things happen somewhere else.When investigative journalist Mara Keene returns home, that balance begins to fracture. A teenage girl has vanished. Another young person disappeared months earlier. The sheriff insists there is no connection, and most of the town is willing to accept that. Asking questions has never been welcome in Bracken Hol...

Originally published in 1824, this firsthand account describes how, in June 1822, young English seaman Aaron Smith was taken captive by Cuban pirates when his ship was boarded en route from Jamaica to England. A skilled navigator, fluent in Spanish, and regarded as what was then acceptable as a ship’s surgeon, he was an attractive candidate for conscription.Forced to work as a navigator and participate in pirate boarding parties for ten months, he suffered mightily and witnessed un...

Dale Conroy has a record, a past he cannot outrun, and a job offer he cannot afford to turn down. He takes under-the-table maintenance work at a long-abandoned psychiatric facility tucked deep in the mountains.The building is falling apart. The locals avoid it. The man who hired him seems familiar in a way Dale cannot explain. And when the doors lock behind him, something shifts.What begins as routine work unravels into something far more disturbing. Hallways change shape. ...

Get ready for a risk-taking rollercoaster ride through the favelas of Rio Di Janeiro and the wayside towns and jungles of South America in search of the secrets of shamans and ayahuasca – the vine of the soul. Aaron Smith's often hilarious chronicle of love, danger and enlightenment, set in the one of most vibrant places on earth, is a true delight. Whether Aaron is being held at gunpoint in Rio, stranded on the Amazon River; interviewing musician Peter Gabriel for The Iquitos Times

Stop Lying is Aaron Smith’s most personal and vulnerable work yet. Revolving around the death of the poet’s mother and how Smith, a gay man, faces his upbringing where his sexuality was viewed as sinful and unnatural, these poems plumb the complexities of what families say and choose not to say. How does one grieve when a relationship will forever remain unresolved? What does it mean to both regret and not regret one’s decisions? What if survival doesn’t look like what we’re told ...

In his third poetry collection, Primer, Aaron Smith grapples with the ugly realities of the private self, in which desire feels more like a trap than fulfillment. What is the face we prepare in our public lives to distract others from our private grief?Smith's poetry explores that inexplicable tension between what we say and how we actually feel, exposing the complications of intimacy and the limitations of language to bridge those distances between friends, family members...

Appetite is a book that explores our American Mythologies, particularly masculinity and film. Smith investigates our fascinations with the body, gender, and entertainment in poems that are critically observant, darkly funny, darkly angry, and, sometimes, heartbreaking.Whether he is cataloging shirtless men in films and bad television, lyricizing the anxieties of childhood, or redrawing the lines of cultural membership, Appetite attacks its subjects with wit, cando...