An Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate has landed a [seven figure book] deal with HarperCollins for a fantasy trilogy that is inspired by President Barack Obama.
We all heard Richard Blanco’s poem for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, but have you heard Paul Muldoon’s?
“First off, hearty congratulations
on having the backing of the nation
over Romney. It looks like ‘Mitt’ is short
for intermittent, or something of that sort.
Second, ‘inauguration’ is a word
that conjures up ‘divination by birds,’
Romans who tried to break the code
of what hens’ entrails might forebode.
As for the forecast I deliver?
Don’t be chicken-hearted! Don’t be chicken-livered!
I must admit I’m hesitant
to bend the ear of a President
for whom I have so much more time
than almost any of the dime-
a-dozen politicians
we track by their shifting positions
as targets may be tracked by drones…”
“At nine o’clock one Saturday morning I made my way to the Diplomatic Reception Room, on the ground floor of the White House. I’d asked to play in the president’s regular basketball game, in part because I wondered how and why a 50-year-old still played a game designed for a 25-year-old body, in part because a good way to get to know someone is to do something with him. I hadn’t the slightest idea what kind of a game it was. The first hint came when a valet passed through bearing, as if they were sacred objects, a pair of slick red-white-and-blue Under Armour high-tops with the president’s number (44) on the side. Then came the president, looking like a boxer before a fight, in sweats and slightly incongruous black rubber shower shoes. As he climbed into the back of a black S.U.V., a worried expression crossed his face. “I forgot my mouth guard,” he said. Your mouth guard? I think. Why would you need a mouth guard?”
- The Big Short author Michael Lewis writes a 13,638-word profile of Barack Obama
The White House’s beer sounds too heavy on the honey, if you ask us. For an even more patriotic potable, check out George Washington’s “Small Beer” recipe from 1789.
“Barack Obama is a wholly new kind of American president, part white, part African, who wears sarongs and is fluent in Hawaiian pidgin.”
- Our First Jadak President: David Maraniss’ Barack Obama by Michael Bourne
“Early in Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss defines an African word, jadak, that will weave its way through his biography of our 44th president. ‘Pronounced juh-DAK,’ Maraniss writes, ‘it meant ‘foreigner,’ ‘immigrant,’ ‘alien,’ and was delivered and received as an insult.’”
- Our First Jadak President: David Maraniss’ Barack Obama by Michael Bourne
