Skinner House Books

Skinner House is a publishing imprint of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We publish books for UUs and all liberal religious people to support the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

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“May this power of love you find in these pages change your life and your Unitarian Universalism.”

Forged at the intersection of faith and justice, BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation is the first publication from Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). Editors Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin and Rev. Mykal Slack, both on BLUU's Organizing Collective Board of Directors, have collected original poems, prayers, and short prose pieces by Black Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist writers, musicians, worship leaders, and liturgists. This rich and profound collection can be used for personal study, private meditation, and worship that amplifies a Black Unitarian Universalist perspective and worldview. Selected music and additional resources round out this transformative collection.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Did you know Love You, Bye by award-winning essayist, poet, and teacher Brenda Miller is also available as an audiobook? Get your copy today from Libro.fm, Audible, or any other major audio platforms. And you can often request that your local library purchase a copy too!

In Love You, Bye, award-winning author Brenda Miller maps the territory of caregiving, loss, and unexpected grace. The title—drawn from the simple phrase she and her mother said to each other for years—captures the bittersweet essence of a book that finds profound meaning in the most ordinary expressions of love.

At the center of this collection lies the story of Miller's journey as the "wayward daughter" who becomes the devoted caregiver to her aging parents, chronicling her father's gradual decline and her mother's final months with remarkable vulnerability. From the rituals of Passover to the silence of hospice rooms, from the mysterious appearances of tree frogs to the sacred work of singing at deathbeds, Miller weaves together the ordinary and the transcendent, often finding that the sacred is embedded in the mundane.

Miller's voice moves seamlessly between prose and poetry, between humor and heartbreak, between the personal and the universal. She transforms the simple act of saying goodbye into an art form and the everyday language of love into something approaching prayer. Love You, Bye is essential reading for anyone navigating the complexities of aging parents, the mysteries of faith, or the simple courage required to keep loving in a world that can break our hearts.

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Winner of a Nautilus award in the memoir category!

This is a story of becoming and un-becoming. When the living waters that crisscrossed the Standing Rock reservation came under threat, minister of the nearby Unitarian Universalist congregation Karen Van Fossan asked herself what it means, as a descendent of colonialism, to resist her own colonial culture. When another pipeline, Line 3, came to threaten Anishinaabe ways of life, the question became even more resounding.

In A Fire at the Center, Van Fossan takes readers behind the scenes of the Dakota Access Pipeline conflict, to penitentiaries where prisoners of war have carried the movement onward, to the jail cell where she was held for protesting Line 3, to a reimagining of decolonized family constellations, and to moments of collective hope and strength.

With penetrating insight, she blends memoir, history, and cultural critique. Guided by the generous teachings of Oceti Sakowin Camp near Standing Rock, she investigates layers of colonialism—extractive industries, mass incarceration, broken treaties, disappearances of Indigenous people—and the boundaries of imperial whiteness.

For all those striving for liberation and meaningful allyship, Van Fossan’s learnings and practices of genuine, mutual solidarity and her thoughtful critique of whiteness will be transformational.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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"Every chaplain, theologian, caregiver, and healthcare professional can find profound truth captured on each page of Where Two Worlds Touch. . . . This is a beautiful book and the deepest I have read on the topic." —Dr. Stephen G. Post

A stunning 10th anniversary edition of Rev. Dr. Jade C. Angelica’s beloved memoir and pastoral guide for those who love someone with Alzheimer's. With a new foreword by Dr. Stephen G. Post.

In 2001, Jade C. Angelica's mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and thus began a surprising and transformative journey for both mother and daughter. From the early stages of the disease until her mother died, Angelica was dedicated to her mother's care. In that time she learned about grief, relationship, the nature of selfhood, and the unexpected blessings of Alzheimer's disease. She also found a purpose and embarked on her life's work—to teach that people with Alzheimer's can have meaningful lives, relationships, joy, and growth. Where Two Worlds Touch is both a memoir and a pastoral guide for those who love someone with Alzheimer's. It offers heartfelt wisdom on preserving connection, self-care, and staying open to the possibility of grace.

In this updated 10th anniversary edition of her beloved book, Angelica adds more learnings from her years in Alzheimer’s ministry and important discoveries from the world of science. She draws on interfaith theological and spiritual resources, historical information, medical research, social context, and practical know-how from professional and family caregivers, as well as her own life’s story to provide a life-changing resource for those who need its gifts.

Available wherever books are sold and through inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Letting Go

I went to the beach, and it was soft today, temperate hues merging and separating; clouds and ocean reflecting, complementing each other, and far away an occasional beam from the Gurnet Light.

Oh let me touch the faces of those I love with the same gentle-ness the waves show to the shore; let me sing my song with the same feeling with which the gulls fill the sacred space of sea and sky. Let me learn of beauty from the affection of morning sunlight; let my sorrow learn to meld with the tinted clouds; let my joy learn to swim and fly and fill the dawn with my delight.

And when my body is tired and no longer wants to be a part of the active life, then let it be from here that my soul flies free.

—Elizabeth Tarbox Life Tides

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Winner of a Nautilus Award in Memoir!

Kate Landis grew up in the American Baptist Church—the child of a music director and a deacon—until she left the church in her late teens after surviving major depression and a handful of suicide attempts. She became an activist, feminist, punk, and self-described rabble rouser. And through activism she found a spiritual community with justice at its core and a faith that could hold it all—her mental illness, her fire, her spunk, and all of her questions—a loving, stubborn grace.

With unflinching honesty and humor in the vein of Cheryl Strayed and David Sedaris but a raw tenderness all her own, Landis chronicles the hardest parts of her young adulthood as well as her poignant journey to faith and community.

Stubborn Grace is available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Did you know The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide is available as an audiobook? Get your copy from Libro.fm, Audible, or any other major audio platforms. And you can often request that your local library purchase a copy too!

Unitarian Universalists are people of all ages, of many backgrounds, and of many beliefs. They are brave, curious, and compassionate thinkers and doers that create spirituality and community beyond boundaries, working for more justice and more love in a hurting world.

The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide is the most complete introduction to Unitarian Universalism available, covering ministry, worship, religious education, social justice, community, and history. Edited by Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt, this seventh edition prepares readers with resources and information for this crucial moment in Unitarian Universalism.

Contributors include Rev. Cheryl M. Walker, Rev. Ashley Horan, Rev. Dr. Sheri Prud’homme, Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd, Rev. Katie Romano Griffin, Dr. Dan McKanan, and Rev. Victoria Safford, among others.

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"I almost cried several times while reading Swinging on the Garden Gate.

Not because it is a sad book. Well, I guess it was sad at times—every memoir is, after all. But mostly I wanted to cry because this book soothed something inside of me. It felt holy—as though the author had held out a piece of her heart and said, 'Here, this is for you.'

When I first received a copy of the book, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d never encountered a memoir of bisexuality, especially not a religious one, and wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened the first page. It’s not a 'fix-it' or 'How to Deal with Being Bisexual 101' type of book. It’s more like a poem or song that ebbs and flows with the joys and griefs of Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s life. The book is a kind of accompaniment, a warm hand that holds ours and invites us to walk with her."

We’re thrilled to share this stunning review of Swinging on the Garden Gate featured in U.S. Catholic.

You can read the complete review online: https://uscatholic.org/articles/202208/a-memoir-reveals-the-holiness-of-bisexuality/

A memoir of coming of age and coming out, Swinging on the Garden Gate describes a period of time in award-winning writer and teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s life when she came to know bisexuality as an embodied manifestation of divinity. Andrew not only reconciles her United Methodist faith with her sexuality but realizes that her body and her sexuality are holy. This second edition includes a new note from Andrew as she looks back on its twenty-year history and a foreword by Bishop Karen Oliveto.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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“May this power of love you find in these pages change your life and your Unitarian Universalism.”

Forged at the intersection of faith and justice, BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation is the first publication from Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). Editors Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin and Rev. Mykal Slack, both on BLUU's Organizing Collective Board of Directors, have collected original poems, prayers, and short prose pieces by Black Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist writers, musicians, worship leaders, and liturgists. This rich and profound collection can be used for personal study, private meditation, and worship that amplifies a Black Unitarian Universalist perspective and worldview. Selected music and additional resources round out this transformative collection.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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The 2026-2027 UU Common Read is Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by Rev. Dr Sofía Betancourt. The Common Read builds community in our congregations and our movement by giving diverse people a shared platform for reflection, learning, and action. “Given everything our world faces today, having faith in love is no small thing" writes Rev. Betancourt in her preface to the collection and we hope this Common Read encourages you to consider and discuss what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

Visit uua.org/read to access this year's discussion guides and additional resources and to learn more about how and you and your community can participate.

In response to the Article II Study Commission and the final adopted language of Article II outlining our shared values, it is clear that the value most describe as central to their faith, to their living, and to the mission of their congregations is love itself. We are a people guided by, and centered in, our engagement with all that love requires.

Our pressing task now is to ask ourselves and each other how this understanding calls us forward, individually and collectively. We may agree that love is central, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us? It is in that spirit that we asked more than two dozen leaders in our movement the question of what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

In these pages, you’ll find personal testimony to love’s power, reminders of the centrality of love throughout the long histories of Universalism and Unitarianism, and theologies of love drawn from many different expressions of Unitarian Universalism—from the natural world to the justice rally, to a loved one’s deathbed, to the quiet moment before a worship service begins. May Love at the Center serve as an invitation to deepen your own understanding and practices of love.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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"A child I know, when asked whether she would answer the call of her elementary school principal to wear red, white, and blue clothes to school on Thursday, was in a quandary. She put down the crayon with which she was painstakingly trying to squeeze the words peace is possible onto the white bars between the red bars on the small American flag she had made, and said, “Well, it is a pretty good country . . . so it’s hard to know what to wear.”

This is a pretty good country. It is one of hundreds and hundreds of pretty good countries, layered relatively recently onto the skim of topsoil or desert sand or water that covers our globe. It is one of hundreds of pretty good countries filled with millions of pretty good and proud and worthy people, these other lands with sunlight, too, and clover. It’s a pretty good but pretty complicated country, where lately I, who am a lifelong citizen, feel even more than usual like an alien, afraid that if I speak, my voice might betray not some foreign place of origin but the uneven geography of my heart. It is hard to know what to wear.

And what to say. These days everywhere I go, with anyone I meet, I’m wondering, where are you coming from, friend, with your black armband, with your flag, with your red, white, and blue clothing, with your peace sign, with your tears? What roads have you traveled to reach the place where you are? In our pretty good country it is an honor and a privilege to answer and in turn to ask, what really are we loyal to? What usefulness can nationalism serve now, as the old world yields to a new century? What is America’s right relation and right role, and my right role as a citizen? And what are you going to wear?"

—Victoria Safford, an excerpt from "Turquoise Patriot" from Walking Toward Morning

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“May this power of love you find in these pages change your life and your Unitarian Universalism.”

Forged at the intersection of faith and justice, BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation is the first publication from Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). Editors Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin and Rev. Mykal Slack, both on BLUU's Organizing Collective Board of Directors, have collected original poems, prayers, and short prose pieces by Black Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist writers, musicians, worship leaders, and liturgists. This rich and profound collection can be used for personal study, private meditation, and worship that amplifies a Black Unitarian Universalist perspective and worldview. Selected music and additional resources round out this transformative collection.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Call for submissions!

Skinner House Books welcomes submissions for a second edition of Bless All Who Serve, a UU collection of meditations, prayers, and reflections for military chaplains, service members, veterans, military families, and all who minister in military communities.

For more information visit: bit.ly/blessallwhoserve

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2026

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The 2026-2027 UU Common Read is Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by Rev. Dr Sofía Betancourt. The Common Read builds community in our congregations and our movement by giving diverse people a shared platform for reflection, learning, and action. “Given everything our world faces today, having faith in love is no small thing" writes Rev. Betancourt in her preface to the collection and we hope this Common Read encourages you to consider and discuss what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

Visit uua.org/read to access this year's discussion guides and additional resources and to learn more about how and you and your community can participate.

In response to the Article II Study Commission and the final adopted language of Article II outlining our shared values, it is clear that the value most describe as central to their faith, to their living, and to the mission of their congregations is love itself. We are a people guided by, and centered in, our engagement with all that love requires.

Our pressing task now is to ask ourselves and each other how this understanding calls us forward, individually and collectively. We may agree that love is central, but what does that mean to us and what does it require of us? It is in that spirit that we asked more than two dozen leaders in our movement the question of what it means to put love at the center of our faith.

In these pages, you’ll find personal testimony to love’s power, reminders of the centrality of love throughout the long histories of Universalism and Unitarianism, and theologies of love drawn from many different expressions of Unitarian Universalism—from the natural world to the justice rally, to a loved one’s deathbed, to the quiet moment before a worship service begins. May Love at the Center serve as an invitation to deepen your own understanding and practices of love.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Community ministry is the fastest growing type of ministry in Unitarian Universalism and many ministers serve in some combination of parish and community work. But what is community ministry? It’s not often clearly understood and nonprofit work, justice movement leadership, and other forms of community ministry are still widely unknown or considered radical. When many people think minister, they still imagine only a church minister.

In Care for the World, editor Erin J. Walter and contributors offer essays, interviews, and resources to revolutionize our understanding of ministry, lifting up the rich diversity of community ministries—both lay and ordained and led by religious leaders with a broad range of life experiences, identities, and communities of care—within Unitarian Universalism. These reflections show the immense and vital work that Unitarian Universalists are doing in the world and will inspire readers to live a spirited, purposeful life, rooting their daily work in their deepest values and faith.

This collection will also support seminarians and religious professionals in, or who are considering, community ministry, and inspire congregations to nurture and affiliate with community ministries. Without knowledge of the important work of community ministry, potential leaders may not answer their call. And the world needs this sacred, vibrant work now more than ever.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Every story begins with a word. As a young woman, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew carried a word within her so potent that it spread through her every artery and vein. She carried it in secret until she was shown a different way and the word inside her turned restless and eager.

A stunning memoir of coming of age and coming out, Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality and Spirit describes a period of time in award-winning writer and teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s life when she came to know bisexuality as an embodied manifestation of divinity. Andrew not only reconciles her United Methodist faith with her sexuality but realizes that her body is holy, her sexuality is holy, and the word she carried within her has always been holy.

The spark of spirit Andrew identifies in her body she also finds throughout the solid matter of life—in childhood, nature, creativity, loss, death, and especially the coming out process. Andrew brings a distinctly queer feminist lens to Christian teachings and answers the question innumerable young people have posed to her over the years: “Is it possible to be both queer and spiritual?” The act of bringing hidden, personal truths to light is transformative, and for Andrew, a universal calling.

This second edition includes a new note from Andrew as she looks back on its twenty-year history and a foreword by Bishop Karen Oliveto.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop.

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Even though they are edible, someone decided that dandelions are weeds, stragglers to destroy, to uproot. But dandelions never got the memo, never thought to care. Busy instead with dropping roots, flinging seeds, unfurling shoots. And persistent in digging in that taproot to depths of two or three average adults end to end, the tiny yellow flower survives.

You are no less resilient, reaching both down to the strength that holds you, and up, up to the light, out with your beauty. And you know, having sunk your effort into the cool, damp earth—that while dandelions can be clipped and fought, uninvested in anyone’s opinion they throw their sparkling futures onto the wind, tomorrow tucked into seeds, and grow all the way back, strong and bowing at the very same time.

—Taraxacum

Rev. Julián Jamaica Soto Spilling the Light