Empty Shoes: Poems on the Hungry and the Homeless

151 poems about hunger and homelessness, from 80 poets, many with direct experience, such as: Dori Appel, a Red Cross disaster volunteer; Mary L. Downs, a volunteer at LEAVEN; Barbara Flaherty, former treatment center supervisor; Nancy Gauquier, formerly homeless in NY; Randall Horton, a Ph.D. candidate who advocates for the homeless and prison reform, having been homeless and in prison; Michele Leavitt, a teenage runaway in the 1970s, who later worked as a public defender; John J. Quirk, a member of Chicago's Homeless Action Committee; Nancy Scott, a social worker who helps find housing; and Julian I. Taber, who treated homeless veterans in the V.A.Also includes: Ellen Kort, Wisconsin's first Poet Laureate; Linda Aschbrenner, publisher of the first 100 issues of Free Verse; Pushcart nominees Sharmagne Leland-St. John and Ellaraine Lockie; and Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets presidents Jeri McCormick and Lester Smith.All profits go to programs helping the hungry and homeless.

Patrick T. Randolph teaches academic and creative writing in the English as a Second Language Department at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.