Hard Times Require Furious Dancing

“[These] poems grow as naturally on the page as grass and flowers, yet never try to conceal a terrain of early graves, emotional land mines, and levies of sorrow.”
– Gloria Steinem, author of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

“Alice Walker’s new poems are a lifeboat in a storm, warm soup in the mouth, a rumba in the streets of the heart.”

– Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart

“These poems are so beautiful, so full of truth and light, that it is possible to forget how absolutely useful they are. And how necessary. Alice Walker has given us a year of poems that speak to us like wise old friends, reminding us to embrace our freedom; encouraging us to celebrate our love; and demanding that in the face of things known, and things unknowable, we grab another human being by the hand and dance as often, and as furiously, as we possibly can!”

– Pearl Cleage, author of We Spoke Your Names

“The intimacy and grace of her words are a call to love more deeply, no matter what we have endured. Her poems are medicine for the soul.”

– from the foreword by Shiloh McCloud

“What a gift. Alice Walker charts out a cherished path for living, loving, mourning, and just being. Her spirit soars in every line, and she carries us with her.”

– Andy Shallal, owner of Busboys and Poets

Authors@Google One-Hour Video Interview

In October, 2010, Alice Walker joined Googlers in Mountain View for a day of conversation and readings from her latest book of poetry, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing.

“[This] collection of new poems is written especially for the times we’re living through. Alice Walker is known throughout the world as not only a great writer but an activist and a woman who shares the inner turmoil and outer struggles of her life. Readers admire her ability to bare her heart and soul, but to also speak out about the world as she sees it, often becoming a catalyst for change.

As the title [Hard Times Require Furious Dancing] suggests, these poems were written during struggles and sadness and deal with the loss of siblings, the loss of a beloved dog, the estrangement in families, violence and struggles on the world stage, and the simple joy of life itself. The words dance, they sing, they heal our hearts and touch our souls.”

Excerpt from the Press Release from New World Library