by Michael Eskin
(November 2013)

If parenthood were a function of biology, adoptive parents, for instance, ought not to be considered parents — which is absurd. Thus, it follows that biology cannot be an essential component of parenthood.  Concomitantly, if parenthood were merely a function of law, all those who have parented children without being their legal parents would be stripped of their de facto parenthood ... If, then, parenthood is neither a function of biology nor simply law — what is it? What does being a parent truly mean? Rooted in the author’s own experience as a father of three, The Wisdom of Parenthood is an insightful, original, and provocative philosophical meditation on the meaning, experience, and practice of parenthood.

by Michael Eskin & Kathrin Stengel
(May/June 2013)

We are constituted to think and reflect, to query and question, to seek answers and not stop at the answers we find, pushing further and further on our quest for meaning and insight into the big and the small, into first things and last. In other words, we are philosophical creatures. How, then, can we achieve more satisfying, rich, creative, and fulfilled lives as creatures of thought and reflection, as fundamentally philosophical beings? This question lies at the heart of Yoga for the Mind – an intensely fruitful and enriching philosophical supplement to the daily diet of existence.

by Durs Grünbein
Translated by Michael Eskin
(January 2013)

In this new collection of poems—his most philosophically probing and poetically revealing to date—Durs Grünbein takes us on a spiritual journey through the labyrinthine cosmos of the human soul and its manifold embodiments across the ages. Addressing us in his own voice as well as through the prisms of Seneca, Augustine, Descartes, Spinoza, Pascal, Malebranche, Vermeer, and others, Grünbein subtly and lovingly traces the paradoxes of creatureliness—its joys and sufferings, its resilience and fragility—to remind us of the “mortal diamond from the hands of nature” that is life.

by Andrea Köhler

Graced with lyricism, The Waiting Game is an engaging meditation on the ways in which human beings are forced — and choose — to mark time, from earliest childhood to the final moments of life. This is an unsparing, yet often poetic, essay on the ordeals and pleasures inherent in the universal experience of waiting. (Jamie Venise, Ph.D.)

by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Acclaimed poet and essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes a fresh, sobering look at our faith in statistics, our desire to predict the future, and our dependence on fortuitousness. Tracing the interface between chance and probability in medical diagnostics, risk models, economics, and the fluctuations of financial markets, Fatal Numbers goes straight to the heart of what it means  to live, plan, and make decisions in a globalized, digitized, hyperlinked, science-driven, and uncertain world ...

by Durs Grünbein

What counts is the one, unattended second, the moment of inspiration that can never be forced and that decides all. It gives the beginning, it sets in motion the production of sense. The poem is the literary form that most purely captures this moment of inception. I might even go so far as to say that poetry is in large part born from the desire to start over as often as possible ...

by Durs Grünbein

In three beautifully wrought meditations on the import of René Descartes' legacy from a poet's perspective, Durs Grünbein presents us with a Descartes whom we haven't met before: not the notorious perpetrator of the mind-body-dualism, the arch-villain of Rationalism but the inspired and courageous dreamer, explorer, and fabulist. Reading Descartes against the grain ...

by Michael Eskin

(Winner of the 2010 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARD)

This remarkable book takes the reader through the many layers of meaning that accompany the word 'prejudice'. By critically confronting the ways in which we think and speak about prejudice, Michael Eskin clears the path for a new understanding of prejudice as a concept, a phenomenon, and a lived experience. Combining analytical rigor ...

by Kathrin Stengel

(Winner of the 2008 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER BOOK AWARD)

In this penetrating, thought-provoking, and deeply personal philosophical meditation on the death of the beloved other and the turmoil into which it throws those who were close to him, philosopher Kathrin Stengel opens hitherto unseen vistas onto one of the most painful human experiences. The author's ruthless clarity of observation, coupled with razor-sharp philosophical intuition ...