That's when I had my anxiety attack. They happen now and then. In large crowds, when I'm home alone with my kids late at night (yes, I need a dog), when I'm startled by a loud noise, when I saw The Hunting Ground for the first time in a crowded antique theater and this horrible woman next to me scolded me for texting a friend to ask how much longer the movie was going to be because I felt an attack coming on.

What began as a modest effort (inspired by federally designated occasions like Women's History Month in March) to highlight the cultural contributions of poets, promote the sales and distribution of poetry books, and encourage the reading and teaching of poems, has become a phenomenon positively impacting the state of poetry in the United States.

My book of 100 experimental sonnets, Soraya, which will be released on June 7, 2016 by Black Widow Press (publishers of contemporary poets like Clayton Eshleman, Jerome Rothenberg, and Robert Kelly, and of the classic surrealist texts), was a breakthrough in my poetic journey.

These types of titles find permanent places in my personal library. Whenever I feel myself losing faith, getting off track, or generally questioning my deviance from the tried-and-true path, I pull out one of these five books to get back in the game.

College For Convicts presents the facts, figures and rationale for educating prisoners. Prisoners with a college degree are much less likely to recidivate.

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Want to know one habit ultra-successful people have in common? They read. A lot.

Holidays give families a chance to gather, reflect on the last year, and create new memories. At least that is the ideal version of the concept. Brenda Janowitz's lovely and fast-paced novel, The Dinner Party, captures a much more realistic view of the intricacies of a family gathering.

"You get the politics that you deserve." Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Ford here speaks bluntly of the interplay between politicians and the public in America, arguing that people can only blame themselves for being lied to by politicians.

Terry Kay dedicated this book to Pat Conroy, one of the South's legendary writers. It is the perfect book to remind us of the talent we lost with Pat Conroy's death and the talent that remains with Terry Kay.

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"A stunning book about Alice and Oliver, yes, but also about the way illness shatters us all." A literary novel about cancer and the way a husband and wife try to survive. Read full book review.

When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Nope. Instead, snatch up the biggest juiciest lemon, and you hurl that mo-fo back as hard as you can. Hear the succulent splat when it hits