Signals Across Vast Distances

In this deeply personal book, Elizabeth Alexander gives us profound and galvanizing lessons from culture and life to move through challenging times. In close readings of visionary and beloved poets and writers--Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan, among others--Dr. Alexander meditates on how words and values can sustain and inspire us, interweaving her voice with revelatory works of art by some of our most extraordinary visual artists, richly reproduced in the book's pages.

Her stories of connection--as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother of two sons; reflecting at midlife on her younger days as an aspiring dancer; as a poet at President Obama's inauguration on the dais alongside her father, a civil rights pioneer; urging radical welcome in our families, communities, and country--engage and move us. Her reflections on the public project of acknowledging historical truths, a focus of her leadership at the Mellon Foundation, model courageous action.

Throughout the book, Alexander poses questions, encouraging readers to recognize the abundant resources we carry within or can access: language, history, art, community, family, our bodies, our stories, and love itself. In luminous and powerful prose, Signals Across Vast Distances calls us to imagine possibilities, take courage, and--in Alexander's closing words--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.

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  
• Publish Date: September 15, 2026
  
• Pages: 144
  
• Language: English
  
• Type: Hardcover
  
• EAN/UPC: 9781324118008
  
• Dimensions: 0.8 in H | 0.6 in W
  
• BISAC Categories: Literary Fiction, Biography & Memoir