Let me see.
So, yeah.
So I'm reading tonight from this brand-new book, 13 Questions
for the Next Economy.
And this book exists, in a sense,
because the small press that published my first three books
is no longer in business.
My whole career and my home in poetry is in small presses.
Small presses.
This small press, the press I was working with, Ahsahta Press,
took a chance on me when I was a poet who
didn't have a book out and then published three books of mine.
And then Noemi Press took a chance on me
with Defacing the Monument.
And they let me create a book that, as Raquel was saying,
it's kind of poetry, it's kind of essay,
and it's kind of criticism.
It's kind of cultural criticism.
Small presses let us take risks, and they're
vital to the art ecology that I think we're all a part of.
There are so many places that need
our attention and our love and our need right now,
and it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
But if you do have a chance to support a small press,
support a small press.
You can do it by buying my book.
That'd be lovely.
But you can also do it just by donating to them.
And if you're worried about trying
to make sure your money goes someplace,
at least in the case of this book,
I'll donate 50% of my royalties to the Florence Immigration
and Refugee Rights Project and Mariposas Sin Fronteras.
But, look, support everybody.
Support the food banks.
Don't forget the small presses.
They let me take risks.
When I was going back to these old poems,
I wanted to look at them in a new way.
And I've thought a lot in my writing about the archive,
about documents.
So I started collaging under some of these poems.
You'll see some of the source texts
that inspired the poems appeared there.
And this small press said, sure, we can publish those collages,
and we can make it look like a zine
because that's the aesthetic you want.
And you want to do a hard-bound, limited-cover edition?
OK, we won't make money, but, sure, we'll do it.
It's a beautiful thing and it's a lot of work,
so please consider supporting arts
institutions whenever you can, especially the small ones.