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Shows what politically progressive creative writers were feeling in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
David Starkey
 
Part 1. West
1. Another Way of Saying
Sherry Simpson
2. Hauling WaterFrank Soos
3. Red Politics and Blue in Wyoming
David Romtvedt
4. Running in the Red
Jennifer Sinor
 
Part 2. Midwest
5. Election Season
Lee Martin
6. TrappingJonis Agee
7. Here Was Johnny
Steve Heller
8. America, Where's Your Sense of Humor?
Michael J. Rosen
9. Control Issues
Robin Hemley
10. A Campaign That Failed
Deb Olin Unferth
 
Part 3. South11. Playing Debussy in the Heart of Dixie
David Case
12. The Kreskin Effect 
Jim Peterson
13. Faith
John Lane
14. How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Swamp in South Carolina
Gilbert Allen
15. Rescue the Drowning, Tie Your Shoe-Strings
Sidney Burris
16. P Is For . . . 
Stephen Corey
17. Minority within Minority: Dynamics of Race and Culture in the New South
Anthony Kellman18. Theater of Operations
Donald Morrill
19. The World Loves New Orleans, but America Has Not Come to Its Rescue
Mona Lisa Saloy
20. Louisiana's New Political Landscape
Angus Woodward
21. Summertime
David Starkey
 
Afterword: Writing the Personal Political Essay
David Starkey
Contributors

About the Author

David Starkey is a professor of English at Santa Barbara City College and author of Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations as well as several collections of poetry, most recently Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems. Contributors include: West: David Romtvedt, Sherry Simpson, Jennifer Sinor, and Frank Soos; Midwest: Jonis Agee, Steve Heller, Robin Hemley, Lee Martin, Michael J. Rosen, and Deb Olin Unferth; South: Gilbert Allen, Sidney Burris, David Case, Stephen Corey, Anthony Kellman, John Lane, Donald Morrill, Jim Peterson, Mona Lisa Saloy, David Starkey, and Angus Woodward

Reviews

"By offering us an array of compelling stories, these writers protect us from the illusion that any one story can be adequate to the rich complexity of the world. This illusion is dangerous in religion, more dangerous in politics, and most dangerous of all when religion and politics join hands on the levers of power." Scott Russell Sanders, author of A private history of awe "It is important to be reminded, as the essays in Living Blue in the Red States do, of the range and complexity of opinion in our culture. This rainbow of comment and testimony against the stereotypes is something to celebrate; it is the lifeblood of democracy." Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek