Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart

Alice Walker, author of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple — “an American novel of permanent importance” (San Francisco Chronicle) — crafts a bilingual collection that is both playfully imaginative and intensely moving.

Presented in both English and Spanish, Alice Walker shares a timely collection of nearly 70 works of passionate and powerful poetry that bears witness to our troubled times, while also chronicling a life well lived. From poems of painful self-inquiry, to celebrating the simple beauty of baking frittatas, Walker offers us a window into her magical, at times difficult, and liberating world of activism, love, hope and, above all, gratitude. Whether she’s urging us to preserve an urban paradise or behold the delicate necessity of beauty to the spirit, Walker encourages us to honor the divine that lives inside all of us and brings her legendary free verse to the page once again, demonstrating that she remains a revolutionary poet and an inspiration to generations of fans.

"[A] strong addition to her mulitgenre literary canon. Walker offers the prodding wisdom of an elder suggesting that we can cope by taking comfort in beauty, friendship, and human kindness; by always expressing gratitude; and by turning inward to hold ourselves accountable for what we contribute." Booklist (Starred Review)

"Walker forthrightly addresses our despair while ultimately offering poems of love and hope for all readers." Library Journal

"The [poetry] collection is moving and timely, and highlights the still-raw trauma from our nation’s recent past." Vanity Fair

"A book that meditates on these contentious times, but also on life, love, hope, and gratitude, it's just what our literary souls were aching for." Marie Claire

A prolific writer in multiple genres, Alice Walker has become a canonical figure in American letters. Her writings have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and more than 12 million copies of her books have been sold.