11/9: The Fall of American Democracy

by Casey Lawrence (Editor), William D. Dickerson (Editor), Taylor “Dallas Rey” Custis (Contributor)

Presenting the diverse voices of those most affected by the results of the 2016 American presidential election, 11/9: The Fall of American Democracy is a charitable project meant to prioritize and highlight marginalized writers for a good cause. One hundred percent of profits from the sale of this book will be donated to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, and the ACLU, the nonprofit organization defending the constitutional rights of Americans.

11/9: The Fall of American Democracy contains the work of a number of award-winning poets and authors including Roger Aplon, Laura Foley, Alan w. Jankowski, Mike Jurkovic, Sergio A. Ortiz, Mindela Ruby, Claire Scott, and Jan Steckel, in addition to a number of unpublished poets and fresh young voices. From a precocious four-year-old writer to octogenarians, amateur poets to Pushcart nominees, American expats to teens who have never left their hometown, this volume collects poetry and short prose reflecting on 11/9/16, a dark day in American history.

Purchase/pre-order link

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0719P6VK9/...

Genres: Poetry

137 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2017

About the author

Casey Lawrence has a doctorate in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, having completed her thesis on cross-dressing and gender inversion in the novels of James Joyce and his contemporaries. She is a queer activist, feminist, democratic socialist and writes queer contemporary and speculative fiction. Originally from St. Catharines, Ontario, Casey currently lives in Europe with her partner. She writes the books she wishes she’d been able to read growing up and is a staunch advocate for diversity and inclusion in publishing. You can follow her on Bluesky @myexplodingpen or like her on Facebook, @caseylawrenceauthor.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of my favorite things about this anthology include the following. (Disclaimer: I’m a contributor.)

Joan Annsfire “Circus of Struggle”: “We won’t go back. There is no way but forward,/ not around but through.”

E.C.C. [Elisa Catrina Chavez] “Revenge”

Fred Dodsworth “No Safe Spaces”: “Make your art hard.”

F.I. Goldhaber addresses the rising tide of antisemitism in “Growing up Jewish in the American South.”

Emma McFarland’s “11.9.16” p. 75
“And I did not watch (again) the dream of a young girl
Die (again) in the eyes of a seventy-year-old woman
Who thinks now, no, not in my lifetime”

All 3 of Scott-Patrick Mitchell’s poems p. 81

Arin Vasquez “The Biggest Act of Rebellion” p. 122
“you wake up at sixteen to see a country that throws you away and you see
the biggest act of rebellion right now is just to be.”

Ariadne Wolf in her bio on p. 130 talks about the need to fix a broken society, to put back together what was torn asunder, what Jews know as tikkun olam.

Kina Wolfenstein “Blade Facing Out”
Jewishness. Self-harm vs. pointing the aggression outward. The image of the Ten of Swords.
“In the Tarot deck, the 10 of swords means you’re finally confronting all those things you’ve been trying to ignore. Like that this country hates you.”
“… today I woke up with ten swords in my bed, and it felt a little bit like the world was ending.”

Andrena Zawinski’s powerful “Civics Lesson,” written with a sure hand.

Owen Ziegler’s devastating parody “Trumpymandias”
bio: “If Trump reads this anthology, his passport may be canceled and he may never be able to return, but that's alright with him.”

Joanie HF Zosike “The Lie of Helplessnessness”
protesting robots

[Joanie Zosike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a couple of poems in this one, and think there's lots of good writing in it. Not just because I'm in it. 9/11 is hard to write about. 11/9, perhaps even more difficult.