Jay Parini

"Delightful … a rich cast of characters … Parini does a superb job." - San Francisco Chronicle "[Parini] expertly navigates this multilayered narrative." - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Pleasure-filled … Parini writes lovingly and evocatively." - Los Angeles Times "Richly compelling … Parini renders the mentor-apprentice dynamic with great sensitivity." - Bookreporter.com

An acclaimed American poet, Jay Parini is widely recognized for his ability to confront modern issues in a variety of forms, while adding a highly musical sense of phrasing and a relentless sense of humor. Parini, as seen in his previous works of poetry-Anthracite Country (1982), Town Life (1988), andHouse of Days (1998)-has created a remarkable voice of his own. The Art of Subtraction: New and Selected Poems is a testament to Parini's unique poetic...

Fifteen-year-old Sammy di Cantini, resident of a mining region of Pennsylvania, is determined to rise above his class, falls disastrously in love with a Protestant, and visits his Mafia brother in New York where he becomes involved in impossible struggles

Writer and critic Parini looks back over his own decades of trials, errors, and triumphs, in a memoir replete with hard-won wisdom about the teacher's craft for instructors of all levels. He offers valuable insight into the many challenges that educators face, from establishing a persona in the classroom, to fostering relationships with students, to balancing a teaching load with academic writing and research.

Jesus comes to me and you through thousands of years of imagery and writing-a vast web of material that often does more to obscure than reveal. Now, one of America's greatest living storytellers retells the greatest story ever told with unprecedented clarity and insight. An accomplished poet and author, Jay Parini has earned widespread recognition as an innovator in the genre of biographical fiction. Among his books on towering literary figures like...

Jay Parini turns the powerful narrative skill he's wielded over the course of a four-decade career to a figure who's dominated our collective imagination and cultural iconography for over twenty centuries. The main trend of modern theology has hinged on the notion of "demythologizing" Jesus. Parini's book seeks to re-mythologize him, considering the story in all its mythical radiance, taking Jesus as the human face of God. It asks: What's so moving...

"A historical novel of the Apostle Paul, whose tireless and epic preaching of the message of Jesus brought Christianity into existence and changed human history. In relating Paul's epic journeys, both geographical and spiritual, the author unfolds a vivid panorama of the ancient world on the verge of epochal change, while in the alternating voice of the Gospel writer Luke, Paul's travel companion, scribe, and ghostwriter, a cooler perspective on Paul's...

For almost half a century, Donald Everett Axinn has been writing poetry in which, as Jay Parini notes in his introduction, "the stamp of individuality, the personal voice of the poet, lives on every page." A seasoned pilot, as well as a poet and novelist, Axinn revels as much in viewing the world from above as he lovingly, though often wryly, surveys the scene around him here below. Whether in his charming love poems, his delight in the evolving seasons,...