Politically Inspired

by Stephen Elliott (Editor)

Politically Inspired, is an anthology of original short fiction inspired by the news and reflects the different sides of the confusing issues surrounding us. Stephen Elliott felt what he was writing wasn't relevant in a time of war and so he began to write fiction based on the world's current events. He realized other authors were having the same dilemma. He acted upon this and put together this anthology after receiving overwhelming response from his writing peers.

Politically Inspired is all-original, never before published fiction inspired by current events.

Contributors include
Anthony Swofford: Author of Jarhead
David Rees: Author of Get Your War On
Michelle Tea: Author of Valencia and Chelsea Whistle. Winner of the Lambda award for Best Lesbian Fiction.
Elizabeth Tallent: Author of Honey and Museum Pieces. Included twice in the Best American Short Stories anthology.
Tom Barbash: Author of The Last Good Chance and the nonfiction book On Top Of The World, Cantor Fitzgerald And The 9/11 Tragedy
Paul LaFarge: Author of Artist Of The Missing and Hausmann Or The Distinction
Zoe Trope: Author of Don't Kill The Freshman
Kola Boof: Sudanese born author of Long Train to the Redeeming Sin
Etel Adnan: Author of Paris When It's Naked, Cities and Women, and Sitte Marie Rose, which has been translated into over ten languages and is considered a classic of Middle Eastern literature.

Genres: Short Stories

Paperback

First published October 8, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, as well as a Best Book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, Journal News, and Village Voice. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 & 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He is the editor of Where To Invade Next and three collections of politically inspired fiction. In January, 2009, he founded the online culture magazine, The Rumpus."

Reviews

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this at the height of my own political fervor and find it (now) to be...a little flat. I appreciate that the editor took some risks in the story selections and that this was not easy in the climate this book was compiled, but a lot of these stories don't examine their subject matter in a fulsome or even meaningful way. So, not really a great work, if you ask me.

[Juliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I casually picked up this book at the library and one of the short stories caught my attention entitled 9/11 Bookstore. It was an interesting story but not enough to make me want to read the entire book. However, I like the concept of the anthology. It was funded by Oxfam America and all book proceeds goes towards the organization.