NOT NATIVE: Short Stories of Immigrant Life in an In-Between World
by Murali Kamma
NEW PUBLICATIONS - MEMOIR
GREEN CARD & OTHER ESSAYS
by Áine Greaney
A WELCOMING PHILOSOPHY
The aim of Universal Table is to promote tolerance and social trust along many dimensions of life - or those are the words we have been using in our official mission statement. But each time we use them, we realize we are trying to describe something far broader - something that encompasses welcome, difference, surprise and inclusion, truthfulness and authenticity, and an equal place for each of us and what we hold most dear. These are the true goals of Universal Table: Finding the We in Them, the Us in You.
Our major activities are the books we create and publish through Wising Up Press, and the Universal Table workshops and research projects that both develop and support them. Our areas of particular interest are social justice & inclusion, immigration & belonging, pluralism in families, illness & meaning, social and psychological resiliency, creative aging, listening across faiths - and the many other complex challenges and lasting rewards of living up close and personal with pluralism in social, family, religious, and civic life.
What distinguishes our approach is an equal emphasis on the why and the how of living well with difference. Through our research projects, we are developing new interpretations of chronic areas of social discord, interpretations that make it safer for us to interact from a position of respect and appreciation with people who have very different world views and value systems.
We are equally interested in specific techniques, especially the use of story and other art forms, to help us change our patterns of direct personal interaction, so that we can live out our best intentions. What ways of thinking, imagining, listening, speaking and being with one another truly expand our worlds? For real, sustainable change takes place at the day by day, person by person, word by word, gesture by gesture level - and it isn't easy and it isn't simple. But fascinating, rewarding, energizing, inspiring, and worth all the effort - without a doubt.
LATEST PUBLICATIONS
RE-CREATING OUR COMMON CHORD A Wising Up Anthology
With the intense polarization in our society these days, the volume and vitriol so high on all sides, how do we live out our commitment to the existentially equal value of those around us when we ourselves feel deeply devalued, feel our definition of the common good is unheard or denied? What do we do with our strong responses to the threat that devaluation poses—a threat our bodies and our hearts recognize even faster than our minds? . . .
Thirty-seven contemporary writers share here, through memoir, fiction, poetry, and essay, their own experiences with discovering, creating, or re-creating our common chord across nationality, class, criminal justice, religion, race, politics, family, community. Come join us . . .
NOT NATIVE: Short Stories of Immigrant Life in an In-Between World Murali Kamma
The stories in this debut collection explore experiences of first generation Indian immigrants in the U.S. Kamma’s characters deal with conflict, growth, dislocation, and renewal in a new world. Their old world is also present, and this "in-betweenness" shapes their lives.
In Green Card & Other Essays, Áine Greaney invites her readers to follow her three-decades' long journey from Irish citizen and resident to new immigrant and green card holder to dual citizenship that now includes naturalized U.S. citizenship.
Failure: It's the slimy flip side of success. We all try to avoid it, find another label, metaphor: Momentary setback, unsuspected opportunity, wake-up call. But sometimes there's no way to put a positive light on it. Failure is aboutnot achieving something we have strived for and value.
CHOOSING TO CARE: Why We Hang in There Deadline: April 15, 2020
A husband with diabetes, a father with ALS, a child with profound birth defects, a teenager with addictions, an adult child with autism, a borderline sister, a wife with cancer, a mother with Alzheimer's, a brother who can't keep a job, a daughter in jail. Why do we hang in there long after someone else might give up?
To explore the lasting social consequences of felony convictions, we are creating a book that combines first person accounts of people with felony convictions—both when serving their sentences and afterwards, including those who have successfully reintegrated and those who have not—along with the stories of the many other people involved in these cases.READ MORE
WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE AN ANTHOLOGY TO START A CONVERSATION?
We see our books, especially our Wising Up Anthologies, as catalysts for community, a way of deepening the conversations that develop through the shared experience of reading, especially around areas of sticky, or strident, social concern . . . Read More
Stephanie Hart: Contributing author and discussion leader
The Kindness of Strangers NYC Discussion Group
Universal Table Finding the We in Them, the Us in You. Wising Up Press
www.universaltable.org P.O. Box 2122, Decatur, GA 30031-2122 404-276-6046
