Praised by Andre Norton, among others, as an "excellent combination of science fiction and fantasy," The Blessing Papers concerns a post-apocalyptic future set in a fictitious Ireland (Imram), in which the ability to read and write has almost been lost and strange images and religions reign. The action and adventure of the three novels dramatizes through many twists and turns the rediscovery through the Blessing family of an almost forgotten past as portrayed in the final recovery of the hidden Blessing Papers themselves.

The Blessing Papers: Part I of the Blessing Series

Literature & Fiction

Barnwell, William

Short Stories & Anthologies

iUniverse

<p>Turley Vail has succeeded in forming an alliance of the northern Circle Villages of Imram. As the new Center, he has renounced the temptations of the Blessing Papers. But the triumph rings hollow as first his lovely wife Jeneen dies, and then his son Thomas grows distant. But when trouble threatens the Circle people, father and son take off together to the south to root out the cause. Through arid valleys and the forbidding Lower Mountains, their journey becomes a battle for the entire human race, and one man's courage becomes the final test for the future of all things in the rise and fall of the Sigma Curve.</p>

The Sigma Curve: Part III of the Blessing Series

Contemporary

Imram: Part II of the Blessing Series

As the logic of evolution comes to a head in the middle of the Nineteenth-Century, an older Frenchman, haunted by an odd event in his youth, tracks the journey of a strange stone object westward to a pre-Civil-War America where he and his cousin, a young scientist, and a strong-willed woman they meet under trying circumstances, match wits with a wealthy European entrepreneur to try to prevent, if they can, the possible loss of one world and the uncertain birth of another.

Book of the Romes

Genre Fiction

<p>From the Foreword: This marvelous book is about life-changing stories, mostly by young black people who have seldom gotten a fair shake in life, let alone much of a second chance. They are poignant tales, often gripping. Some will amaze you, others grab you by the gut and refuse to let go. Most of the stories are about coming of age in New Orleans, a city that has learned to live with tragedy. New Orleans has been cast in several different lights over the years—as painted lady or sportsman’s paradox; as the murder-rate capital of these United States, or the central conveyor belt for Louisiana’s overstuffed jails and prisons. But one characteristic is easily overlooked: its irrepressibility. Resilience is practically tattooed on New Orleans’s soul. That stiff upper lip comes across in the stories William Barnwell persuaded his book’s interviewees to share with its readers . . . .What’s so remarkable about this anthology is the willful banishment of anger. Rejection of revenge goes against the grain. The urge to strike back against violence, whether witnessed or experienced, can be all consuming. But these are remarkable people—mostly young, but some old; generally black, but a few white. And all of them have elected to bend their energies toward mitigating violence rather than fanning its flames. For all of the tragedy that has befallen New Orleans over the years (and since Katrina there has been a gracious plenty), Angels in the Wilderness is an indispensable reminder that light can still pierce the darkness. It’s a book worth reading then contemplating. –Lawrence N. Powell</p>

Angels in the Wilderness: Young and Black in New Orleans and Beyond

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

University of Louisiana

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Books by Barnwell, William