Joe Jackson

Winner of the Society of American Historians' Francis Parkman Prize Winner of the PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Best Biography of 2016, True West magazine Winner of the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award, Best Western Biography Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography Long-listed for the Cundill History Prize One of the Best Books of 2016, The Boston Globe The epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the world Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John G. Neihardt from a series of interviews with Black Elk and other elders at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Black Elk Speaks is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed—while the historical Black Elk has faded from view. In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence between the Sioux, white settlers, and U.S. government troops, Black Elk killed his first man at the Little Bighorn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, instead accepting the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that he struggled to understand. Although Black Elk embraced Catholicism in his later years, he continued to practice the old ways clandestinely and never refrained from seeking meaning in the visions that both haunted and inspired him. In Black Elk, Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to its subject the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains.

The Life of an American Visionary

Black Elk

K. S. Villoso

Dyrk Ashton

Michael J. Sullivan

J. C. Kang

Will Wight

Phil Tucker

Ben Galley

Jeffrey Hall

Laura M. Hughes

"What do you think a hero is? It's just the right person in the right place making the right choice at the right time. Heroes aren't born. They're made." **r/Fantasy Stabby Award Winner - Best Anthology 2019** A demonic assassin. A half-orc boxer. A ratman necromancer. Though they take many different shapes and forms, there are heroes all around us. Bravery can be found in the most unexpected places: a subterranean dwarven city; the sands of a temple courtyard in Ancient Egypt; a besieged castle, a Victorian brothel, a goblin warren, the post-apocalyptic ruins of a demon-infested village. Heroes dwell in the shadows as well as the light; you just have to look a little harder to find them. Who do they fight?Some heroes challenge injustice in all its numerous guises, while others hunt monsters both human and bestial. Others battle inner demons, the ghosts of their past, their deepest nightmares - or even the gods themselves. Why do they fight?For glory? Sometimes. For honor? Perhaps. There are those who instinctively strive to protect those weaker than themselves, and there are others emboldened only by a sense of obligation, or the promise of wealth. Whether by the blade or other means, they endeavor to take down all who threaten what is good and right in their world. By hook or by crook, through cunning or combat, with tooth and claw or iron and steel, they are all united in one goal, willingly or not: to live - and die, if necessary - a hero. Choose your weapon. Fight for what you believe in. Never give up. Nineteen fantasy writers gather to bring nineteen tales to life, each one a unique glimpse into a wholly original world.

A Fantasy Anthology

Heroes Wanted

Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire

The Thief at the End of the World

David Benem

Mike Shel

Daniel Potter

Andy Peloquin

Matt Moss

Derek Alan Siddoway

Jeramy Goble

J.C. Kang

Quenby Olson

M.D. Presley

K.S. Villoso

“What do you think a hero is? It’s just the right person in the right place making the right choice at the right time. Heroes aren’t born. They’re made.” A demonic assassin. A half-orc boxer. A ratman necromancer. Though they take many different shapes and forms, there are heroes all around us. Bravery can be found in the most unexpected places: a subterranean dwarven city; the sands of a temple courtyard in Ancient Egypt; a besieged castle, a Victorian brothel, a goblin warren, the post-apocalyptic ruins of a demon-infested village. Heroes dwell in the shadows as well as the light; you just have to look a little harder to find them. Who do they fight? Some heroes challenge injustice in all its numerous guises, while others hunt monsters both human and bestial. Others battle inner demons, the ghosts of their past, their deepest nightmares – or even the gods themselves. Why do they fight? For glory? Sometimes. For honor? Perhaps. There are those who instinctively strive to protect those weaker than themselves, and there are others emboldened only by a sense of obligation, or the promise of wealth. Whether by the blade or other means, they endeavor to take down all who threaten what is good and right in their world. By hook or by crook, through cunning or combat, with tooth and claw or iron and steel, they are all united in one goal, willingly or not: to live – and die, if necessary – a hero. Choose your weapon. Fight for what you believe in. Never give up. Nineteen fantasy writers gather to bring nineteen tales to life, each one a unique glimpse into a wholly original world.

The War was over, the Devil Queen cast down. In the wake of the Apocalypse, veteran demonhunter Karian Vanador understands that the vigilance of her Order means there is rarely any time to rest. Even with a paragon of evil cast down, it isn't long before another rears its head, and for Kari, the War never ends. She will head into danger again, for it is the life she's chosen and the only path she really knows. Along the way she will face the tests of friendship, the fires of love, the heat of battle, and the limits of her faith, and in those trials, she will seek the answer to her most pressing question: "Why was I resurrected?"

Salvation's Dawn

"It's wonderful to read a book that ranges across music, cinema, music video art, and literature with such ease... One of the beautiful things about this book is that it is really attentive to relationships, and this is particularly clear when talking about Kahlil Joseph's creative mentors and comrades, including Arthur Jafa and Terrence Malick." -Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Helen S. Bevington Associate Professor of Modern Poetry; Associate Professor of African & African American Studies, Duke University, USA Kahlil Joseph has collaborated with musicians FKA twigs, Flying Lotus, Sampha and Shabazz Palaces among many others. He has directed numerous films, music videos and advertisements across Africa, America and Europe. The award-winning filmmaker's disruptive style – which frequently merges visual representations of transcontinental experiences with the countercultural energies of Afrodiasporic music – challenges the Eurocentric biases underpinning Western media. At the same time, his works generate various contradictions and tensions because they are themselves products situated within an economic framework of neoliberal capitalism, at once offering alternative ways of being while, simultaneously, participating in and thereby sustaining the social structures that they otherwise seek to subvert and dismantle. This is the first book-length study of Kahlil Joseph's work. Distinguishing the artist's personal and professional personas, it traces Joseph's career trajectory and artistic output, emphasizing how the director's construction of a multifaceted filmmaking persona operates in tandem with his artworks to challenge fixed, unidimensional or stable notions of identity. Through biographical study and deep examinations of the director's respective transmedia artworks, this book draws from various discussions shaped by Paul Gilroy's ground-breaking text The Black Atlantic (1993). By applying The Black Atlantic's disruptive audiocentric ideas to contemporary digital media forms generated by Kahlil Joseph and his peers alike, this book challenges the latent Eurocentricity on which dominant theorizations of 'modernity' – as well as the overlapping fields of Film, Media and Screen Studies – are grounded. In turn, it offers an alternative framework for negotiating the paradoxes, contradictions and transnational flows of our media-saturated present: namely, the Audiovisual Atlantic. This book has been selected as runner up for Best First Monograph 2025 by BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies).

Music, Modernity, Transmedia Art

Kahlil Joseph and the Audiovisual Atlantic

William F. Burke (Jr.)

Summers are always stifling in southern Virginia, and they're even hotter on the Mecklenburg Correctional Center's Death Row when Dennis Stockton arrives there in July 1983. Charged with murder for hire, Stockton insisted he was innocent, but his jury sentenced him to die. In prison, he begins keeping a diary and it soon becomes his lifeline, nurturing dreams of freedom and publication as an author. Mecklenburg's officials had always prided themselves on running a secure prison, but that left them vulnerable to an ingenious escape conspiracy. Though indispensable in the plotting, Stockton decides not to run, betting instead on a new trial and exoneration. The escape of the "Mecklenburg Six" is dazzlingly suspenseful, as they take hostages, don guards' uniforms, and, staging a monumental bluff, make history with America's first mass escape from Death Row. Mean-while, Stockton notes it all in his journal. After the escape, a Norfolk newspaper editor, William F. Burke, Jr., writes to the remaining inmates, seeking information on the unprecedented breakout. Stockton's diary becomes the most revealing account, and when excerpts are published, a scandalous portrait of Death Row emerges: bribed guards, marijuana plants, homebrew alcohol, weapon stashes, unlocked cell doors, and jailhouse sex. Overnight, Stockton becomes the most hated man in Virginia's prisons for his exposé. During the next eleven years, he survives plots against his life and endures subhuman conditions. Throughout his ordeal he struggles to find his voice as a writer, while battling to gain a new trial and escape the "monster factory," his name for Death Row. As Stockton's scheduled execution nears, the case against him begins unraveling, leaving readers to ponder the true nature of justice.

The Untold Story of Dennis Stockton and America's Only Mass Escape from Death Row

Dead Run

On SUMMER IN THE CITY, rock sophisticate Joe Jackson steps out with a bare-bones piano trio to perform a batch of eclectic originals and covers that have marked and influenced his impressive 20-year recording career. Resting on the fluid grooves of bassist Graham Maby and the solid drumming of Gary Burke, Jackson tickles these 13 songs to life with his delicate, jazzy piano chops and some brave new arrangements of old chestnuts. For instance, a new rendition of "Fools in Love," from the 1979 album LOOK SHARP!, dares to abandon that irresistible reggae lilt in favor of a creeping bass line that suggests mystery as it segues into a contemplative verse of the Yardbirds' "For Your Love." It's a different take on some old favorites, but it works. Jackson also dips into other sides of his musical palette with a swingin', old-timey version of "Mood Indigo" and a cover of Steely Dan's "King of the World" that manages to milk the complexity out of the composition without weighing it down. His limp version of "Eleanor Rigby" we could have done without. Still, for Jackson fans who want to hear him in yet another setting -- that of the I-could-even-do-weddings-if-I-wanted-to! piano man -- SUMMER IN THE CITY offers another dose of his musical versatility.

Joe Jackson/Graham Maby/Gary Burke

Live In New York - Summer In The City

The successful rock musician and songwriter chronicles his life in music, from his miserable childhood in a rough naval town, through his days as a student at the Royal Academy of Music, to the succession of bands leading up to his solo career. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

A Musical Pilgrimage

A Cure For Gravity

Glasgow is known as the murder capital of Britain and no one understands why better than Joe Jackson. For over 30 years, Jackson worked the crime beat, first as a uniformed cop then as a seasoned murder squad detective. In this hard-hitting memoir of his most memorable cases, he reveals the reality behind chasing killers and other crooks in 'No Mean City'. As a young cop, Jackson was threatened by Glasgow's most ruthless gangster, Arthur Thomson, and, as a fresh detective, he took part in the hunt for Bible John, Glasgow's most shadowy serial killer. He locked up more than his fair share of paedophiles and sex beasts along the way and, as a veteran Senior Investigating Officer, he cracked the hardest homicide nut there is: a murder without a body. Jackson's investigations have grabbed headlines, while his 'collars' have filled jails. Chasing Killers will shock readers with its behind-the-scenes look at how murder probes are run. Every case is related with candour and humour, and is laced with the kind of detail that only an expert can provide. Joe Jackson has been called the real-life Taggart, but this is no TV fantasy - this is real city police work: concrete hard, soot black and blood red.

Three Decades of Cracking Crime in the UK's Murder Capital

Chasing Killers

Em O ladrão no fim do mundo, o escritor e jornalista investigativo Joe Jackson disseca um dos mais notáveis casos de contrabando internacional que fez ruir o modelo econômico da borracha que havia impulsionado o desenvolvimento do norte brasileiro. Movido pela ambição de crescer na indústria da borracha - filão comandado pelo Brasil na época - Wickham decide se aventurar pela selva amazônica em busca de um tipo particular de seringueira que produzia a borracha mais forte, durável e almejada pelos ingleses. Após enfrentar os perigos da floresta, ter encontros com insetos gigantes e habitantes do rio Amazonas, entre outras experiências que quase o levaram à morte, Henry Wickham retorna à Inglaterra com milhares de sementes raras de seringueira que, depois de estudadas no jardim botânico de Londres, o Kew Gardens, foram enviadas para plantações nas colônias inglesas tropicais. Trinta anos depois, a Inglaterra conseguiu superar o Brasil no monopólio da borracha e dominar os suprimentos mundiais da matéria-prima. O ladrão no fim do mundo é a história do uso e abuso da natureza pelo homem na luta pela dominação mundial.

como um inglês roubou 70 mil sementes de seringueira e acabou com o monopólio do Brasil sobre a borracha

O ladrão no fim do mundo

Blaze of Glory

Nanci Griffith

The popular American folk singer looks back on her career and discusses the songs and performers who influenced her

A Personal History of Folk Music

Nanci Griffith's Other Voices

War has erupted on three worlds. A hero king lies in chains in a demon-controlled realm. Kari and her allies are beset on all sides, both at home and in their enemies' lands. All is not lost, however, for the keys to the ancient Temple of Archons have been gathered and Salvation's Dawn stands at the fore. At last, the Temple of Archons will be opened, the intentions of the gods made clear. The hope of all mankind rests upon this event, and the forces of Light stand to open the Temple before the demon kings become aware. If they can do this, they may finally gain the advantage they have long sought over their nemeses. But all is not so simple. King Kalamaris Talvorus must still be rescued from Mehr'Durillia, and Kari must coordinate her efforts with those of Citaria's sister worlds. Every success only adds another layer of defense to Mehr'Durillia, further reinforcing the iron grip of the Overking. It will take every ally, every soldier, every man and woman willing to stand up and fight to bring victory and freedom to the world of demons. The Redemption is at hand...

An Epic Fantasy Adventure

Gods and Kings

Like Charles Seife’s Zero and Dava Sobel’s Longitude, this passionate intellectual history is the story of the intersection of science and the human, in this case the rivals who discovered oxygen in the late 1700s. That breakthrough changed the world as radically as those of Newton and Darwin but was at first eclipsed by revolution and reaction. In chronicling the triumph and ruin of the English freethinker Joseph Priestley and the French nobleman Antoine Lavoisier—the former exiled, the latter executed on the guillotine—A World on Fire illustrates the perilous place of science in an age of unreason.

A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen

A World on Fire

Since the release of his first best-selling album Look Sharp in 1979, Joe Jackson has forged a singular career in music through his originality as a composer and his notoriously independent stance toward music-business fashion. He has also been a famously private person, whose lack of interest in his own celebrity has been interpreted by some as aloofness. That reputation is shattered by A Cure for Gravity, Jackson's enormously funny and revealing memoir of growing up musical, from a culturally impoverished childhood in a rough English port town to the Royal Academy of Music, through London's Punk and New Wave scenes, up to the brink of pop stardom. Jackson describes his life as a teenage Beethoven fanatic; his early piano gigs for audiences of glass-throwing skinheads; and his days on the road with long-forgotten club bands. Far from a standard-issue celebrity autobiography, A Cure for Gravity is a smart, passionate book about music, the creative process, and coming of age as an artist.

J. T. Williams

Rosalyn Kelly

Matthew Johnson

T. J. Muir

Jacob S. Nardi

A. Z. Anthony

T. O. Munro

Lesley Donaldson

Stefan M. Nardi

Greed. Vengeance. Betrayal.The glint of an assassin's blade. The growing stain of blood. The exchange of dark deeds and the consummation of plans laced with greed.For eons, the shadows have concealed humanity's dark heart, now see it laid bare.Dark and gritty worlds come to life in this thrilling anthology, brought to you by sixteen new and best-selling authors. Dive into the pages of this collection and prepare yourself for an onslaught of grim and dark tales.Grab your copy of Beyond the Shadows today and prepare yourself to keep turning the pages long into the darkness of night.

A Grimdark Anthology

Beyond the Shadows: Volume One

The amazing tale of one of history's most daring acts of biopiracy-and how it changed history In this thrilling real-life account of bravery, greed, obsession, and ultimate betrayal, award- winning writer Joe Jackson brings to life the story of fortune hunter Henry Wickham and his collaboration with the empire that fueled, then abandoned him. In 1876, Wickham smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of the rainforests of Brazil and delivered them to Victorian England's most prestigious scientists at Kew Gardens. The story of how Wickham got his hands on those seeds-and the history-making consequences-is the stuff of legend. The Thief at the End of the World is an exciting true story of reckless courage and ambition that perfectly captures the essential nature of Great Britain's colonial adventure in South America.

Chronicles the legendary story of how, in 1876, fortune hunter Henry Wickham got his hands on 70,000 rubber tree seeds, smuggled them out of the rainforests of Brazil, and delivered them to Victorian England's most prestigious scientists in one of history's most daring acts of biopiracy. Reprint.

Joe Jackson si racconta attraverso una sorta di divertente documentario, ricco di umanità e ironia, facendoci apprezzare anche le sue doti di scrittore. Con la sua narrazione accompagna il lettore sino al 1979, anno in cui esce il suo primo e più venduto album, Look Sharp! C’è il ritratto di un adolescente, musicista emarginato e fan di Beethoven, che inizia a esibirsi di fronte a un pubblico di skinhead che lanciano bicchieri e marinai ubriachi che s'azzuffano. Ci guida, poi, dentro le aule della Royal Academy of Music, passando per la Londra della scena punk e new-wave, fino alle soglie della celebrità. In Gravità Zero Jackson ci parla della sua sincretica passione per la musica di tutti i generi; di come e perché la gente faccia musica; del suo grande amore per Šostakovič e The Prodigy e della sua avversione per Brahms e Brian Eno.Non è un’autobiografia ma “un libro sulla musica astutamente camuffato da libro di memorie” che ci svela come la musica lo abbia salvato dal diventare “uno di quei tristi bastardi che vedi uscire dai pub all'ora di chiusura, in cerca di una rissa”.

Joe Jackson

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