good news from denver
Not political news– there’s enough of that elsewhere, and I have nothing to add to the best of its writers– but good news anyway: Elixir Press appears to be back in action. This was a good smallish literary press and magazine based in Minneapolis that became hard to contact right around the time they published Tracy Philpot’s stunningly good third book, which I reviewed a while ago. (They also published her cracklingly good second book. I don’t recommend her first.)
I knew the press had moved to Denver along with its chief operator, the poet Dana Curtis; I knew that it had continued to accept and publish books, but I wondered whether the books would become widely available… and today they sent me a big stack of their recent pubs, as if to say: we’re back! I look forward to reading the rest of them, and encourage you to have a look. It’s not avant-garde, it’s not “mainstream” (whatever that means), it’s usually energetic and serious, and it’s always work Dana genuinely likes.
Also in Denver: Monica, whom we haven’t seen for a while because she’s been busy trying to get Barack elected, tells Slate what it’s like on the convention floor. “Sweet trusting Coloradans… Enjoy your time in the tar pits!”
As for the fruitless distraction that ensures from my own, and others’, quasi-obsessive following and parsing the speeches, the polls, the pols, the windbags, the winds, and seeking reassurance therefrom, this letter to Josh Marshall nails my recent mood. I want our guy elected, and the Republicans gone. But I don’t really know how to bring it about. Maybe the people who are making plans around Obama do. I’m glad I’m not one of them. I would be pretty terrible at doing politics for a living, except maybe in a verrry specialized, writing-intensive capacity, and I’m glad it’s not my job.