NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byers says

"Courageous, unblinking...terrifying and beautiful...harrowing yet tender..."

Begin, if you dare, with this moment "when your wife confronts incest /when she attempts to free/ her grief allow/ the tears to curve/ a flowing sickle/ around her trembling mouth.." and you will enter the world of Breakdown: A Father's Journey, poems that complete the rest of the sentence, the cage of it, the fleeting hope, the nightmare hours of each day, rendered in such sensuous detail that they could be love poems. Richard Krawiec's courageous, unblinking art has created a collection that is both terrifying and beautiful. "I recycle today's images/into language I hope/ will help me endure..." he explains. The poems that he has wrought from this struggle are harrowing, yet tender. They are, finally, nothing less than love poems.

Kathryn Stripling Byer, NC Poet Laureate

In this poetic journal of a father's struggle to endure a wife's mental illness and protect his sons from her destructive demons, Richard Krawiec leads us into a psychological realism that is stunning. He captures with laser-sharp authenticity the emotional dark night, as delusional illness threatens to envelop the family of its victim.

Krawiec writes not as a detached observer but with the anguish of a sufferer finding his way through a nightmare, ultimately sustained by love and devotion to his sons. More than any textbook I know, "Breakdown: A Father's Journey" evokes a compassionate awareness of the ordeal faced by the families of our patients. Clinicians, as well as families and supportive friends, would do well to read it frequently.

Ralph Roughton, M.D., psychoanalyst
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Ricahrd Eder, L.A. Times called it...

"First rate satire. Genuinely touching."

A riveting, hilarious, and deeply moving look at two people who live on the margins of society. Artie a petty thief and would-be con man, finds Jolene wrestling in a bar, trying to earn money to support her sick child. Against all odds, they begin to develop a deep love for each other. But times are tough, and their luck is bad. They come up with a plan that might help them escape their poverty, or doom them forever.

What did Publisher's Weekly say about this book?

"Credibly limns the hearts and minds of characters worth caring about."

Set in Pittsburgh in the 1980s, this heart-wrenching novel chronicles the troubles that beset Pat, a working class mother, her husband Timmy, who has been laid off from the steel mill, and their two daughters, brain-damaged Katie and her younger sister Ellen. The book portrays Timmy's growing sense of worthlessness, Pat's feelings of guilt and frustration, and the difficulty of persevering through adversity to find sympathy and love.

A Collector's Item! The first major anthology to collect works of poetry and prose by North Carolina writers, both unknown and celebrated.

Although featuring fiction and non-fiction from North Carolina writers, this is not a regional anthology. The stories and themes are so diverse this book could've been published anywhere, from New York to Africa. Well known authors such as Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Spencer are featured beside lesser-known, but highly skilled, literary writers.