"While drowning in the sea of sound, " writes Al Young, "my whole life passes before me." These memoirs, essays, and informed vignettes tap into the evocative powers of music and song.

Fiction recounting the experience of growing up in the Deep South

Two friends of the late jazz musician and composer relate their memories of him as their guide in the flamboyent literary art world of the Eisenhower/Kennedy era, and as an abiding presence in their lives

Leaving Saturn, chosen by Al Young as the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, is an ambitious and honest collection.

A collection of poems that explore the issues surrounding race relations in American society, told from the experience of Black, Native American, Asian, Arabic, Hispanic, and white cultures.

This text is the first volume of a comprehensive anthology of Californian literature. It is divided into four parts and contains material ranging from Native American origin myths to Hollywood novels dissecting the American dream.

This is particularly true when the definition of what constitutes nature writing is limited to work about the pastoral or the wild.

Adventurous readers weary of the gridlock and stale exhaust of poetry a la mode will enjoy cruising Al Young's backroads and blue highways.