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Tuesday, September 28, 2004 The Toronto Globe and Mail gets on board with Operation Ohio. Also, Jonathan Lethem, whose Fortress Of Solitude was one of my favorite books last year, has joined the swelling ranks of authors making phone calls on election day. Also, here's an interesting article from outside of the mainstream media. ** Operation Ohio day 1, Monday I'm on a plane to Ohio, birthplace of Thomas Edison, where I've organized a series of voter registration readings with other authors. We're going to register students to vote and create a list of students that would like to receive a reminder phone call from one of their favorite authors on election day. We're hoping to collect 5,000 names and phone numbers of students in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin and figuring the readings in Ohio will generate enough press to get people from other schools signing up for reminder calls over the internet. Some students are like: "But I already know I'm going to vote. I don't want to waste someone's time." To which I respond: "We don't mind." Getting out on the campaign is not new for me. I spent the past year writing a book about this election and I've grown used to traveling, especially in swing states. I've been through Ohio with John Kerry and George Bush many times. I turned the book in August 1 and the plan was to get off the campaign trail after that but I never really thought I would. Anybody that's spent any heavy time on the trail during a presidential election knows that it's as addictive as the worst kind of drug and the only way to kick is to go cold turkey and the only way to go cold turkey is to ride it out straight through to the first Wednesday in November at which point I plan to check myself into a monostary in Asia and go through three months of heavy detox, no sex, no booze, and no politics. But not yet. Right now there's a war going on. People are dying over a mistake. The government is lying to us, destroying our environment, and giving away our social security to people rich beyond my imagining. Also, I don't have health insurance. So it's incumbent upon me to do everything I can to remove George Bush from office. And fortunately a lot of other people have the same sentiment, which is why I think we're going to win this election. I'm happy and excited now. Today I land in Columbus for our first reading at Ohio State University. The authors I'm reading with are some of my favorite writers. Dave Eggers, Rick Moody, Anthony Swofford, Vendela Vida, Julie Orringer, and Jim Shepard. And even though I forgot to set my alarm and woke at 6am in a panic, the weather was nice this morning. It's my favorite time of the year, the fall, not too hot not too cold. Plus, I feel like we're doing our small part to save all of mankind, which is cool. posted by Stephen Elliott 10:22 AM | link | |
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"Any true love story, if told with the urgency and animal intelligence of love, isn't for the fainthearted. On every page of this profound, distilled work of art, Stephen Elliott wrestles with the unknown and unspoken essences of love, and articulates that unknown so beautifully, with such clear-eyed fearlessness... Imagine a glass of pure water with one drop of blood hanging in its center, about to dissolve... Then drink it and be transformed." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City "There's an emotional courage to these stories, and a sense of urgency, that are thrilling to encounter. Elliott writes as if his life depended on each sentence. It is not overstating the case to say that he does for the BDSM community in this book what Denis Johnson did for lost druggies in Jesus' Son." - Steve Almond, The Believer Magazine Best of the year: Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews: Salon.com, LA Weekly, The Believer Excerpts: My Stripper Year, Just Always Be Good Purchase from Amazon, Powells, Cleis, and your local bookstore 
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"Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Richard Ben Cramer: the great, all-American genre of the political campaign in extenso (and in extremis) has had its Homers and Boswells. To that list we can now add Stephen Elliott. Hilarious, strange, electrifyingly written, and heart-pumpingly idealistic, Looking Forward to It wins every literary caucus and primary in a landslide." -Tom Bissell, author of Chasing the Sea Best of the year: Village Voice Reviews: New York Magazine, New York Times Excerpts: The Dennis Kucinich Polka, A John Edwards Almanac Purchase from Amazon, Powell's (cheap!), and your local bookstore 
"A Life Without Consequences was harrowing, hard as nails, brutal, and soaring. Stephen Elliott has to be watched, because he knows things almost no one else could." - Dave Eggers, author of A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is The What Excerpt: Adlai Stevenson House Reviews: Austin American Statesman Purchase from Amazon |
