Octavia Butler, the Black science fiction writer who died in 2006, did not just create imaginary worlds with parallels to ours. Sometimes she created worlds that are eerily a little too much like our own.

Michael Longley, the Irish poet whose long career included more than 40 books, died last week. He was lauded by literary, social and political figures alike for his many contributions to Irish literature and to the cause of social reconciliation.

Josephine Ward was a strong critic of Catholic modernism, and many of her novels featured protagonists struggling to reconcile au courant political and religious ideas with the strictures of the Catholic Church.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s" centers on the unique history found by going through her and her husband Dick Goodwin’s boxes of writings and memorabilia from his five-decade career in American politics.

By centering the voices and experiences of Latina/o sanctuary leaders in " Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities," Gina M. Pérez presents sanctuary as both a sacred and secular reality.

In "The Gospel of Peace," the Rev. John Dear embarks on a kind of spiritual experiment: interpreting the three synoptic Gospels through the lens of nonviolent activism and uncovering connections between first-century Judea and modern-day America.