Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. FOREWORD xi
4. PREFACE xiii
5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii
6. PART ONE. The Fears Within
7. Weeping Unfamiliar Tears 3
8. Scared 6
9. The Risk of (Not) Communicating 9
10. Real Risks 12
11. Holding a Little Girl’s Hand 15
12. Safe Passage 19
13. Rescuing Fire from the Flood 24
14. PART TWO. Writing Risk
15. Life Drawings 29
16. Writing Toward the Center 36
17. Like a Syrupy Sweet 39
18. An Apostate in Academe 41
19. Risks in Writing the Novel, The Rape of Sita 43
20. One Man’s Risk 49
21. Writing Sucks 55
22. On the Line 56
23. Politics and the Imagination 60
24. PART THREE. Where I Come From
25. That Other World That Was the World 73
26. Melodious Chimes 86
27. Rescued by Junkies 88
28. The Prozac Variations 93
29. Our Side of the Tracks 104
30. The House Fire 106
31. The Risk of Deadness 109
32. The Risk of Consciousness 112
33. High Noon at Midnight 116
34. Recipe 119
35. Risk 124
36. PART FOUR. Creating Change
37. Taking Risks 129
38. Spinning 131
39. Girls and Guns 132
40. From Individual Despair to Collective Risk Taking 137
41. Angels or Apes? 140
42. Reclaiming the Self 144
43. Skateboarding the Third Rail 151
44. Choices on a Runaway Train 156
45. A Kinder, Gentler Patriotism 159
46. PART FIVE. Leaving Safety
47. XYZ 165
48. Sunday Morning in Oakland 166
49. Island Journal 171
50. Devil’s Work 179
51. Camping out of the Comfort Zone 186
52. Males and Risk 189
53. The Politics of Hope 194
54. Everyday Courage and the “How” of Our Work 199
55. Mutually Assured Destruction and Jumping Horses 208
56. Jump 211
57. The Only Word I Heard Was “Abeeda.” That Means Slave 213
58. ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS 227