Living Blue in the Red States

by Starkey, David

• ISBN13: 9780803260085
• ISBN10: 0803260083
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Bison Books

Summary

Political pundits never tire of reminding us of the great cultural divide between conservative "red" states and liberal "blue" ones. But common sense tells us that not all people in these states can be politically like-minded. David Starkey, a former red-state resident, wondered what politically progressive creative writers were feeling in the wake of George W. Bush's reelection. How, Starkey asked contributors, does one live blue in a red state. This book supplies many answers. Writers as different as Jonis Agee and Stephen Corey, Robin Hemley and Lee Martin (a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist in fiction), Donald Morrill and Wyoming poet laureate David Romtvedt describe what it is like to live in a region that doesn't always share one's values. While pointedly progressive, the collection brings together the work of essayists who look beyond the passions of the momentthe war in Iraq, the rallying of the Right around social issues, the Democrats' failure in 2004to the need for unity. Sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, always enlightening, these essayists' views testify to the power of writing to bring us together as one nation of whatever color.

Author Biography

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  

Table of Contents

West
Another way of saying	p. 17
Hauling water	p. 39
Red politics and blue in Wyoming	p. 53
Running in the red	p. 66
Midwest
Election season	p. 83
Trapping	p. 92
Here was Johnny	p. 103
America, where's your sense of humor?	p. 111
Control issues	p. 125
A campaign that failed	p. 136
South
Playing Debussy in the heart of Dixie
The Kreskin effect	p. 163
Faith	p. 182
How to ruin a perfectly good swamp in South Carolina	p. 192
Rescue the drowning, tie your shoe-strings	p. 207
P is for...	p. 230
Minority within minority : dynamics of race and culture in the new South	p. 243
Theater of operations	p. 256
The world loves New Orleans, but America has not come to its rescue	p. 281
Louisiana's new political landscape	p. 295
Summertime	p. 313
Afterword : writing the personal political essay	p. 331
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.