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Food Stamps Cutoff
Author Presents Struggle of Poor in New York in New Novel

NEW YORK  The Big Apple is full of luxury and riches as it is home to many wealthy inhabitants. In Michael F. Kallon new novel, Walking With a Cane: New York City Food Stamps War (now available through AuthorHouse), he exposes the city dichotomy of wealth and despair by giving a voice to the desperate poor.

At the close of the 20th century, the mayor of New York introduces a new workfare program leaving the poor cut off from food stamps. The program employs the largest number of untrained sanitation workers in the history of the city. A parade of sick men and women, mothers with children and homeless march to the government agencies putting innocent social workers at the front lines of a social war. The administration decision to deny assistance deprives the poor of the basic human right of food.

The main character, Zombo, representing the author, has been disabled by a spinal injury inflicted by medical treatment. His struggle to survive in New York heightens his awareness of the dismal situation of numerous city residents. He decides to document the horrific events that send sick people back to work and leave the poor striving to make ends meet by battling obstacles upheld by legislation, doctors, human resource administrators and judges.

Walking With a Cane is a sincere look at the struggling poor of New York and the true effects of changing city policy.

Kallon is a native of Sierra Leone on Africa west coast. He moved to the United States after escaping war in Liberia and Sierra Leone. He attended Catholic schools in Sierra Leone and obtained an associate degree in education from Kakata Teachers Training College in Kakata, Liberia. In the United States he received a bachelor degree in writing and literature form Burlington College and a diploma for freelance writing from Harcourt Higher Learning in Scranton, Pa. He has written many works on KISSI culture in Africa and also life in the United States. He previously published Idols With Tears (available through AuthorHouse).

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Idols with Tears
New Novel Preserves Fading African Culture

ARVERNE, N.Y. “ Before the footmen of the modern world sliced through the thick jungles of Africa, it flourished unspoiled. However, since imperialism has stripped much of the old ways, many cultures have been nearly lost. Michael F. Kallon revisits the Kissi tribe and its ways in a revealing new novel, Idols with Tears (now available through AuthorHouse).

According to Kallon, the Kissi people were tribes that populated the areas of West Africa that are known today as Sierra Leone, Liberia and French-Guinea. His book takes place before the arrival of the foreigners who brought Christianity and Islam in tow. Set deep in the jungles of Sierra Leone, the novel tells the tale of Tamba Kolloh and his love for the late chief priest daughter, Kumba Mongor. When the ghost of Nyuma Mongor mysteriously chooses Tamba to be the next chief priest of the village of Yilandu, he must bear the immense responsibility without losing his love.

His ardent love for Kumba becomes the talk of the village as they organize separate societies for both the boys and girls. They also carry out the rituals of their forbearers and launch a witch hunt to stop the mysterious witches that have been embarking on hellish killing sprees. As Tamba accepts and excels at his responsibilities, Kallon uses the opportunity to detail the sophistication of the Kissi people and preserve their ways by chronicling their rituals and traditions.

An insightful novel that offers Americans an introduction to the Kissi people, Idols with Tears unveils the mysteries that surround the misunderstood continent and explains the depth of their sophistication.

Born in Koindu, a prominent business center in the Kissi Chiefdom located in Eastern Sierra Leone, Kallon was educated at Christian schools in Sierra Leone and Liberia. He sought further education in America. He graduated as a private investigator from the Detective Training Institute in California and earned a degree in creative writing and literature from Burlington College. He also worked as a freelance writer. Kallon has lived in New York since he escaped the human slaughter that plagued Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1980s and 90s. Idols with Tears is his first novel.

AuthorHouse is the premier publishing house for emerging authors and new voices in literature. For more information, please visit www.authorhouse.com. Or call them at 888-519-5121