Featured Work
|
Gracious Plentyby Michael Braswell (2025)
Readers will want to keep Gracious Plenty at hand so they can open it again and again. Its meditations, poems, and aphorisms invoke the Bible and Faulkner’s old verities. Sharp similes (“like a drop of sweat on the tongue from Golgotha”) and wise sayings (“The currency of life is not money, but time.”) are apt for our times. Braswell offers shades of Walt Whitman (“Plant me beneath the trees deep into the soil I came from” ) and a tinge of Will Rogers (“Sooner or later the truth will set you free / But not before it beats the hell out of you.”). In short, this collection offers balm and omens for “our busy-bee world.” We should read it often and listen to it. – Roberta Teague Herrin, Ph.D. Author, Appalachian Homilies From the Foreword: The author’s words are a call, not only to let go and let God, but to seize upon the plenty, where brokenness, tenderness and even despair can be epiphanies calling us to change, to action and in the end, contentment. – Patrick O’Doherty, author of Breadcrumbs: Hope and Other Complications This small book is a gem. Meditative essays and free verse poems address questions we all face in life. In that way, this book is a kind of pilgrim’s notebook. Gracious Plenty and his earlier book, The Memory of Grace, are excellent traveling companions. They offer us hope and teach us virtues. They help us see and name transforming and luminous moments in life and unexpected moments of Grace. – J.M. Ryan, PhD, Vanderbilt University (retired) In Gracious Plenty, Michael Braswell offers help and hope for challenges we face in our lives. Truth seeking and gratitude responding to grace as well as the distinction between worldly and heavenly wisdom, are prominent themes in this collection that can serve as a daily devotional or a conversation companion for small group study. – Rev. Bill Connolly, MDiv |
|
When Jesus Came to the Cracker Barrel & Other StoriesMichael Braswell (2024). Resource Publications.
This collection of stories explores the backroads and unexpected destinations and outcomes of the journey we call life. From the unexpected visitor who joins four friends eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel to a beloved grandfather sharing a long-held secret with his grandson to a desperate single mother with two small children who meets a used car salesman, these and other stories examine the crossroads of hope and despair—where mercy and justice often meet. Endorsements: "This collection of short stories, each more truly something between a short story and a parable, offers mouth-sized doses of needed medicine. Each of these short stories strikes a different note, together forming a resounding, transformative chord worthy of filling a cathedral. The book in your hands is a gift, a thing for which to be ardently grateful, for within it you will find resonance, inspiration, charge, and challenge." --Michael J. DeValve, author of A Different Justice "There is fiction, and there is real-life fiction, and that second distinction is what makes Braswell's stories so compelling to read. He is a master at bringing his characters to the reader's eye in all their moments of upheaval, human frailty, spiritual insight, and unexpected kindness. His characters and themes become clear from the onset of his stories to the conclusions, because we have experienced these people and situations in our lives, but have often not noticed them until Michael Braswell's craft brought them from obscurity into the light." --Ralph Bland, author of Lockhart "Michael Braswell's collection of stories edifies and transports the soul to the crossroad where grace and mercy meet." --Anthony Cavender, author of Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia |
|
Interview With JoabMichael Braswell (2022). Resource Publications.
How would you feel if you were Esau and your brother Jacob had stolen your birthright? What impact would Jesus's intervention have on the rest of your life if you were the adulteress he rescued from the mob ready to stone her? If Peter and Judas accidentally met on the night before the resurrection of Christ, what do you think they would say to each other? Interview with Joab, a collection of 15 scripture-based ""what-if"" stories, offers the reader an opportunity to reflect on and discuss well-known Bible stories in a fresh, thought-provoking way. The brief commentaries and questions following each story are designed for personal and small group study. These biblical ""what-ifs"" demonstrate the relevance of these timeless truths and God's lessons for contemporary individuals, families, and communities. Endorsement: "Michael Braswell takes us back to Biblical times and enables us to picture the persons and events that have defined the faith commitments of those in the Judeo-Christian tradition. His writings are not only inspired, by they are also inspiring for the reader." -- Tony Campolo, Evangelist, Pastor and author of Red Letter Christians. |
|
Morality Stories (5th Edition)Braswell and Burgason (2024). Carolina Academic Press.
Morality Stories encompasses personal, social and criminal justice themes and dilemmas, such as Death Row, homelessness and prejudice. In each story, persons are judged as much by the good they omitted to do as by the bad actions they chose to carry out. Acknowledging regrets, expressing remorse and accepting responsibility are demonstrated in many of the stories as a means of moving toward moral courage and decision-making. The fifth edition offers new stories on a variety of themes, including the impact of friendship on racism and loneliness in school settings; an old man facing justice for war crimes; a young boy adapting to his father's release from prison; the pressure and consequences of a high school girl coming out as gay; the effects of three women who reach out to veterans and their wives, helping them to deal with PTSD; how an act of compassion from a law enforcement officer saved a distraught citizen's life; and a blue chip athlete struggling whether to go with his heart or his head in deciding which university to attend and play for. |
|
Justice, Crime, and Ethics (11th Edition)Braswell, Edwards, McCarthy and McCarthy (2023). Routledge.
Justice, Crime, and Ethics, a leading textbook in criminal justice programs, examines ethical dilemmas pertaining to the administration of criminal justice and professional activities in the field. This 11th edition continues to deliver a broad scope of topics, focusing on law enforcement, legal practice, sentencing, corrections, research, crime control policy, and philosophical issues. The book’s robust coverage encompasses contentious issues such as capital punishment, prison corruption, and the use of deception in police interrogation. The 11th edition includes new material on the impact of social media on crime myths and political misconduct. Law enforcement issues including the George Floyd case and responding to domestic as well as foreign terrorism, including the January 6th insurrection in Washington, DC, are examined. The potential ethical implications of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court are also explored. Emerging issues in corporate misconduct are also discussed including healthcare fraud and corruption as well as crypto-currency fraud. |
|
Case Studies in Criminal Justice Ethics Braswell, M., Miller, L. and Pollock, J. (2021). Waveland.
Ethical conflicts rarely involve clear-cut choices. Decision making in ambiguous circumstances challenges personal values and professional ethics. The fog of politics, personal bias, and past experiences factor into the choices made. The goal of this compelling collection of cases is to stimulate reflection about the ethical dilemmas encountered in interactions. Thought-provoking case studies address police misconduct, protests and civil unrest, school resource officers, questionable prosecutorial practices, the challenges of a pandemic for prisons, the influence of politics, ethnic/gender/sexual preference bias, family conflict, immigration, perceptions of terrorism, and executing someone who may be innocent. READ MORE |
|
Personal Ethics and Ordinary HeroesDeValve, M. and Braswell, M. (2021). Routledge.
Personal Ethics and Ordinary Heroes: The Social Context of Morality examines what it means to be an authentic hero and provides real-life narratives that underscore the ethical principles guiding decision-making in the justice system and beyond. READ MORE |
|
Teaching Justice Braswell, M. and Whitehead, J. (2020). Carolina Academic Press.
Teaching Justice encourages teachers and students to examine the different relationships they share in learning about criminal and social justice. It promotes the value of critical thinking in addressing justice-related themes as well as pursuing a more just and ethical future. The different roles of the teacher as scholar, communicator, mentor, philosopher, and artist are explored in depth. In addition, each chapter includes Suggestions for the Classroom, which offer a variety of activities and assignments designed to stimulate thinking and discussion among students. READ MORE |
|
Growing Up South of the Mason-Dixon LineBraswell, M. and Cavender, A. (2020). Resource Publications.
From drinking sweet tea on a beloved grandmother's porch to playing army to witnessing prejudice and violence or receiving the lash, these stories illustrate growing up in the South during the 1950s and 1960s, what it felt, tasted, and looked like through the eyes of the boys who lived it. READ MORE |