A01=Elizabeth Alexander
america
arts activism
arts activist
Author_Elizabeth Alexander
Category=DNC
Category=DNL
Category=DNT
Category=DSB
cultural leader
culture essays
education
eq_anthologies-novellas-short-stories
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
essays
essays on race
forthcoming
gift books
leadership
literary critique
motherhood
personal esssays
philanthropy
poet memoir
stories of family
Product details
- ISBN 9781324118008
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 2026
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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“We send signals across vast distances, hoping to connect.” In luminous prose, Elizabeth Alexander shows how hope offers resources–life wisdom, historical perspective, poetry and art–to embolden us to “reach beyond ourselves.” Her close readings of visionary poets reveal how poetry and art can sustain us. Her stories of connection–as a daughter, wife, widow and mother; as an aspiring dancer; on the dais at President Obama’s inauguration; in the hospital with her son–deeply move us. Shining a light on America’s painful history of inequity, Alexander calls for a reckoning of centuries of injustice. She asks, what will we each do to make the dream of freedom, for everyone, real? Every page charges us to recognise the abundant resources we carry within ourselves: language, history, community, family, our bodies, our stories, love itself. Signals Across Vast Distances empowers us–in Alexander’s closing words–to lead with love.
Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. She composed and recited "Praise Song for the Day" for President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of the arts, culture, and humanities. She lives and works in New York City.
