Politics and Prose Presents

Two top trade experts with popular economics podcasts argue for a new way of operating between the biggest economic powers in the world.
We used to take trade for granted. No more.
Everything we know about trade has changed. With Trump’s tariffs throwing everything up in the air, this is the book to explain the eruption. As we enter this new era of trade conflict, we need a new way of operating between the biggest economic powers in the world. Trade experts Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown argue that now that the rules of the game have been abandoned, we need a different strategy. Yearning for the old approach to start working again isn’t an option. Ultimately, the authors argue that a Western system that protects market-oriented democracies from China’s one will require the embrace of some uniquely Chinese tools. If we want to avoid a war with guns, drones, and battles, then we need to understand these weapons better in How to Win a Trade War.
The authors give a tour of products and supply chains, from metals to sushi, and the impact of trade—and trade disruptions—on workers and consumers. They follow a lipstick with plastic casing manufactured in China, filled in Mexico, and then shipped to Canada after stopping off at a Texan warehouse. They trace an electronics supply chain from silicon sourced in the Appalachian Mountains, to “wafers” made in Japan, to chips made in Taiwan using equipment made in the Netherlands, to smartphones assembled in China and sent to America.
They speculate what all-out economic warfare might look like. What if the world’s key shipping lanes got blocked? Or satellite communication went down? What about export restrictions cutting off supplies of key products? Tariffs could be the least of our problems.

Soumaya Keynes is an economics columnist at the Financial Times and host of the podcast The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes. Before joining the Financial Times in July 2023, she spent eight years at The Economist, where she won an award from the Association of Business Journalists for her commentary on the first Trump administration’s trade policy. She cofounded the Trade Talks podcast during the Trump administration’s first term and cohosted The Economist’s Money Talks podcast. She started her career as an economist working at the UK Treasury and then as a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. She has an undergraduate degree and masters in economics from the University of Cambridge.
Chad Bown is the Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and host of the Trade Talks podcast. He has performed public service in two US administrations, as Chief Economist at the Department of State in the Biden-Harris administration and as Senior Economist in the White House on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors. He has also been on the research staff at the World Bank and World Trade Organization, and was on the faculty at Brandeis University for twelve years and was a tenured professor of economics. He received a BA magna cum laude in economics and international relations from Bucknell University and a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Keynes and Bown are in conversation with Joseph Politano, an economic analyst, data journalist, and online content creator. He is the writer and founder of Apricitas Economics—an independent weekly newsletter read by more than 45,000 people. His work focuses on macroeconomics, particularly labor markets, inflation, housing, international trade, and industrial policy. Prior to writing Apricitas, Joseph received a BA in Economics & Political Science from the George Washington University, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668221310?ic_referral=ojweu8iMSGlmFEjkU9x6gp0Lfcs4GxU5r47-kzNenNkwM5wHWhZhmGvXS9RmWdXtheZSPM9WSDToRgyLN0hDkQYPVSOxpsqVQc3NhsmvHEw4ty16TiYllyY81uSoLRQqiGCGNCs

From MS NOW legal analyst and veteran federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, an urgent summons to tackle the scourge of political lies in America—and prevent a figure like Donald Trump from ever rising again.
“The 2020 election was a total FRAUD!” “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” “There is NO WAY Biden got 80,000,000 votes!!!” These and other lies by Donald Trump sparked a historic insurrection to topple our democracy and undermined the public’s faith in elections. The Trump administration’s deceit has enabled the use of law enforcement and the military against the people, the unlawful deportation of immigrants, and the disregard of international rules meant to promote a civilized and peaceful world. Other politicians, inspired by the success of the political lie, have flooded the public square with falsehoods of their own.
 
As Andrew Weissmann reveals, our vulnerability to politicians’ lies stems from a flaw in America’s legal system—one that can be fixed. But it will take courage, creativity, and a willingness to look beyond our borders to other countries that have already confronted this crisis. A slim, elegant treatise, Liar’s Kingdom is a playbook for stopping politicians like Trump from holding office in the future—and for saving our democracy. We are entitled to more from our government, and this book shows how we can get it.

Andrew Weissmann is an NYU Law School professor and widely respected legal analyst on MS NOW. He was a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director Mueller, a leader of the Enron Task Force, and started out as an organized crime prosecutor in Brooklyn. He is a co-host of MS NOW's award-winning podcast Main Justice and, before that, Prosecuting Donald Trump. He has written two New York Times bestsellers, Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation, and, as co-author, The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary, and also writes the Substack newsletter Behind the Headlines. He holds degrees from Princeton and Columbia Law School, was a Fulbright scholar, and teaches at NYU School of Law. He is a New Yorker through and through.

Weissmann is in conversation with Carol Leonnig, a five-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the author of three bestselling books and an investigative reporter who has worked at The Washington Post for the last twenty-five years. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on security failures by the Secret Service. She also was part of Post teams awarded Pulitzers in 2024, 2022, 2018, and 2014. Leonnig, a contributor to MSNBC, is the author of Zero Fail and coauthor of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780316601306?ic_referral=sTGTIJDt3cmp7BNBFY93q3ohedGt6JohBMTEkgMoOoAwM-f6qko9O_aav7pkG395wrETyLwdeNL6nj4KzHRiv4CqiD9WbYVBc3f6hNa1uxDEgpgoov0LCJp8XVYBxPw32QDHpB8

“Lois Romano writes with grace and empathy to bring depth and dignity to Mary’s story, shining a light on the contradictions that defined her—ambition and vulnerability, devotion and volatility, public scrutiny and private sorrow. What emerges is a deeply human portrayal of a fiercely intelligent, emotionally layered, and courageous woman—flawed, fragile, and tested by unimaginable tragedy—who was not merely a witness to history, but a full partner in a presidency that altered the course of American history." - Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of "Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."

A revelatory new biography of one of the most misunderstood and vilified First Ladies in American history: Mary Todd Lincoln.
Mary Lincoln was at the center of politics at a time when society’s expectations for women were rigid and circumscribed. The product of Southern aristocracy, she grew up among an influential clan of politicians and elites who founded Lexington, Kentucky. Mary’s early exposure to the male-dominated world of politics instilled in her a keen political acumen and a fierce ambition. Proclaiming as a child that she was destined to become the wife of a president, she played a crucial role in boosting her husband to greatness.
But her hopes for a triumphant experience at the pinnacle of power were lost to the Civil War and unfathomable family tragedies. Still, Mary persevered. She steadfastly supported the Union war effort, visited encampments, tended to wounded soldiers, and generously donated money and gifts to refugees from slavery. She was an unconventional, larger-than-life character who dressed too ostentatiously, grieved too publicly, suffered a shopping addiction, and seemed unable or unwilling to corral her emotions, her temper, and her opinions. She made enemies—influential men who wrote her story for her, often unfairly. After Lincoln was assassinated, she was all but abandoned by the nation he had given his life to defend and preserve.
Former Washington Post writer and columnist Lois Romano rectifies the tortured legacy of Mary Todd Lincoln, who was failed at nearly every turn in her widowhood—by her family, by her government, by medical professionals ill-equipped to diagnose her mental illness, and finally, by history. Romano draws on hundreds of archives, letters, and memoirs to provide the most complete portrait—of not simply of an inconvenient widow, but of a brilliant and flawed woman, who possessed uncommon tenacity in the face of extraordinary adversity and personal torment, and helped launch one of America’s greatest presidents.

Lois Romano is a long-time national political journalist who was an editor, columnist, and reporter for The Washington Post and POLITICO, and who has covered numerous first ladies.

Romano is in conversation with Elisabeth Bumiller, a writer at large for The New York Times, where she focuses on the people, politics and culture of Washington, and how decisions made there affect lives in the nation and around the world. She was The Times’ Washington bureau chief from 2015 to 2024, when she oversaw all news in Washington during the last year of the Obama White House and the next eight years of the Trump and Biden administrations. Over the previous two decades she covered the White House, the Pentagon, John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and New York’s City Hall for The Times.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781982140724?ic_referral=ROhrcIM3JimnLwz_-3th9X5kWses4aTwY7Y3aGwRJ6owMyvyNQWq7p57uHi7Lr8u5GMXagL8_DUrTF3DmhZWu4gQbqcG_lLua8kWWcXkWd3TyRLqzP1pB3tCjecp6CN7c9YMX88

Find happiness and comfort in life’s everyday moments with this insightful visual volume of prose and poetry.
In our busy and stress-filled world, it’s easy to miss the smaller moments that can provide happiness and fulfilment. Small Wonders is your invitation to slow down and savor the minor miracles of everyday living. With her insightful prose and evocative poetry, author Jennifer Shoop celebrates the little moments that connect us to each other and to the world around us. Dreamy photography brings the text to life, showcasing the beauty found in the often-overlooked, mundane details all around us. 
Author Jennifer Shoop (@magpiebyjenshoop), creator of the literary lifestyle publication Magpie, encourages you to find joy and replenishment in the small stuff, such as:

• A long phone call with a friend
• The dance of backyard fireflies
• The well-worn charm of a beloved hand-me-down
• And more. 

Wherever you are on your path, life's small wonders can nurture your soul. 

Jennifer Shoop (@magpiebyjenshoop) is the creator of Magpie, the literary lifestyle publication and platform that focuses on inspiring women to live thoughtful, well-curated lives, with an invitation for self-discovery. Magpie features a daily blog with an engaged readership that covers a wide range of lifestyle topics, including motherhood, friendship, love, literature, and beyond. Jennifer holds an advanced degree in literature from Georgetown University and resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and two children.

Shoop is in conversation Chesley McCarty, architecture & photography defines her perspective as a realtor in Washington, DC. After working for 7 years in commercial real estate – a year of which she spent traveling & working remotely across Europe – she now partners with clients who share an appreciation for homes with architectural heritage and strong design character. Chesley is an old soul who enjoys a good book, anything French, and the sound of the (Mediterranean) sea.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781577157267?ic_referral=pbRcvxLL1kiVrU-WQWjDzJRbfumdITf_CPN76_cB2lcwM_TfFWPI2TcTHRRzLUIcFI3oWafuaU85xv0G31lCc5Nhj6kgqf-muzliXp-_HC4IbIeWX5hD2KuTgfZLWDZ0NkMDjGM

In contrast to the wave of noisy polemics around AI, AI For Good explores how, in practice, it can actually improve our lives and tells the stories of everyday citizens at the forefront of this new “AI entrepreneurship.”
AI is often framed as a force of radical transformation, either catapulting us into a utopian future or dragging us toward existential ruin. But this book tells a different story. It’s not about high-profile tech CEOs who want to use AI to “break shit,” but about a bunch of smart pragmatists using AI to make the world better.
Josh Tyrangiel’s journey into AI began with a late-night YouTube video featuring General Gustave Perna, the retired four-star general who orchestrated the distribution of Covid vaccines during Operation Warp Speed. Perna’s success—and the end of the pandemic—depended on AI’s practical ability to synthesize and standardize vast amounts of logistical data. AI wasn’t the hero of the story—it was the tool that helped real people get things done.
This book follows those people, who make up a kind of AI counterculture. It explores AI’s quiet revolution in government services, medicine, education, and human connection—places where it’s being used to amplify human judgment rather than replace it. It tells the stories of teachers, doctors, and bureaucrats who often stumbled into AI as a means to solve specific, tangible problems, often with no prior software expertise.
While the loudest voices in AI debate doomsday scenarios and trillion-dollar market opportunities, this book focuses on those working in the messy, incremental, but deeply impactful space of AI practice. However, there is one big caveat—success is not guaranteed. Change is hard. Institutions move slowly. But even in failure there are lessons for everyone who’s interested in using AI—carefully, thoughtfully—to build a better world today.

Tyrangie is in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, and is the moderator of Washington Week With The Atlantic on PBS. He joined The Atlantic in 2007 as a national correspondent and in 2016 was named editor in chief, the 15th person to serve as editor in The Atlantic's 168-year history. During his editorship, The Atlantic has set new audience and subscription records, and won its first-ever Pulitzer Prizes. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, The Atlantic received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence from the American Society of Magazine Editors, the top award in the industry.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668082508?ic_referral=xDjSBCvCKlxoDSvzbSZEXFQ_9nQsl94jeiSbEtyVy2gwM2IPS57Shu_435f6BN6hDfAbQa8FW9eDOdleFpCNsQbuYruiWdQxy7b_gF8_zEzHIzrkVb8ngIqCf5QPJ0QLO7MXKyo

Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford’s president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubris
Slush funds. Shell companies. Yacht parties. This is life for Silicon Valley’s favored teenagers.
Seventeen-year-old Theo Baker showed up for freshman year at Stanford University as a tech-obsessed coder. It seemed like paradise. There were Rodin sculptures next to nuclear laboratories and inventors lounging with Olympians. But Baker soon discovered a culture that embraced corner-cutting, that vested infinite excess and access in the hands of kids with few safeguards to catch bad behavior.
Stanford, he realized, was less a school than a business. Its annual budget was nearly twice that of Harvard or Yale and higher than those of 116 countries. The product? Students. Especially those special few identified as the next trillion-dollar startup founders. For them, there were secret societies, “pre-idea” funding offers, and social calls from billionaires, all with the expectation that these geniuses would soon join the ruling elite.
At the helm of this business was Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a superstar neuroscientist and wealthy biotech executive. But when Baker joined the student newspaper and started poking around the Stanford president’s record, he discovered never-reported allegations of research misconduct in studies published across two decades bearing Tessier-Lavigne's name.
Only one month into college and thousands of miles from home, Baker began receiving anonymous letters, going on stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources. High-powered lawyers and public relations teams were hired to attack his reporting. By the end of the year, Tessier-Lavigne was out as president.
This is the incredible story of how a reluctant teenage reporter uncovered a scandal that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world—and what they’re learning from those who already do.
How to Rule the World is a shocking, hilarious, and moving debut, showcasing Silicon Valley’s training ground as never before.

Theo Baker is an undergraduate at Stanford University. His reporting led to former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation and made Baker the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. He will graduate from Stanford in June 2026.

Baker is in conversation with award-winning broadcaster and author Mary Louise Kelly, one of the most prominent voices in American journalism today. As host of NPR’s All Things Considered, her assignments have included North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Israel, Iran and beyond. Kelly’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. She serves on Harvard’s Board of Overseers and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and author of two novels, Anonymous Sources and The Bullet. Her 2023 memoir, It.Goes.So.Fast, was an instant New York Times bestseller.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593832837?ic_referral=qdsl1C8-9UReZwOarua4dji6fRLtF_Q8n7iDUi5gdLcwMxP-eYooALk1YeSABpWueF6l4D1cH3ofB3qivXYcc-L21huDkUeOXK0bxfWkhWB342rNnHM2ghkNXwbmEIVfZX2nk0Q

How should we remember George Washington's entanglement in slavery? Americans have argued over that question for nearly 250 years. More than any other Founding Father, Washington's ties to slavery have vexed us. He enslaved more people than any of his fellow founders, yet he was the only one of them to emancipate the people he held in bondage. Since his death, Americans have grappled with this contradiction, shaping and reshaping our collective memory of Washington and slavery--along with our understanding of the nation.
In Thy Will Be Done, historian John Garrison Marks tells the story of Americans' long, fraught struggle to come to terms with Washington's legacy of slavery. He traces how politicians, abolitionists, educators, activists, Washington's former slaves and their descendants, and others have remembered, forgotten, and manipulated slavery's place in Washington's story, and how they have wielded versions of that story in the political and cultural fights of their time. Marks shows how generational struggles over our collective memory of Washington and slavery have always been part of a bigger conversation about defining the United States and its people. As debates about the founders' participation in the system of slavery continue to roil public discourse, Marks shows with new clarity that Americans have never collectively reconciled Washington's conflicted legacy. By truly grappling with Washington's role as enslaver and emancipator, we may come to better understand the nation and ourselves.

John Garrison Marks is a historian, writer, and author of Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery.

Marks is in conversation with Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, and the poetry collections, Counting Descent and Above Ground.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781469693521?ic_referral=dxycLH8ra_yKdaJiqfoNYRfbLxa0GgSeY9_b9YbB2KgwM8PLlnx2bkbmlNB6p9H_uiLrHXdjSEfPnEw23XcXt8VHXY330V3Z59UF4Ywr5xGHh2wSXwPwyZ0tW22UvMGTQqQSblw

Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!
Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.
Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.
As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.

Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck and coeditor of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance. Lewis teaches at the University of Iowa; Canon is their first novel.

Lewis is in conversation with Kaveh Akbar, whose poems appear in the New Yorker, New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is also the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine (Penguin Classics 2022). Martyr! (Knopf, 2024), Kaveh’s first novel, was a New York Times Bestseller, the 2024 recipient of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize for Fiction, a 2024 Discover Prize Finalist, and a 2024 National Book Award Finalist. 

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217059362?ic_referral=1tOdCWuxGnAwIJnuknWJ6Y9xCuHl5L3MCfkBQUEf-TkwM0LmnnirCLlT1tb6HjbN9tSjhRXrPmBFqHixp7YZegMB7LQNauwicbFOwlPiKay7_S_JgPpn63rBuPJzztQzrAQedrQ

You know that 3 a.m. feeling? When you’re wide awake asking yourself: Is this really it?
That nagging feeling that "this isn’t enough anymore" isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom. What once felt fresh now feels like going through the motions. Successful but not satisfied. Accomplished but not alive. You’ve spent years building a life that looks perfect on paper but feels like something is missing when you’re alone with your thoughts.
Society calls it a crisis. But what if it’s actually clarity?
In The Comeback Era, TODAY Show wellness expert Yasmine Cheyenne transforms that restless feeling into rocket fuel for authentic change. Through reconnecting with "Little You"—the person you were before the world told you who to be—you’ll stop performing for everyone else and start living for yourself. This isn’t about burning your life down. It’s about remembering who you were before you learned to dim your light.
In the book, you’ll meet five people who also answered the call: The executive who realized her corner office was a cage. The mother who discovered "having it all together" meant losing herself completely. The achiever who checked every box except the one that mattered. Their stories—and Yasmine’s Seven C’s of Purpose framework—will show you how to:

• Stop watching your life go by and start living it
• Transform past mistakes into pocket wisdom—not baggage
• Convert “someday” dreams into today’s reality
• Turn midlife confusion into crystal clarity
  This book is your permission slip to stop pretending everything’s fine and start building the life you actually want.

Yasmine Cheyenne is a TODAY Show wellness expert and author of three transformative books with HarperCollins whose work helps people reconnect with who they were before the world had a say. Her groundbreaking trilogy—The Sugar Jar (teaching boundary-setting to protect your energy), Wisdom of the Path (navigating life's difficult journeys), and her newest book The Comeback Era: From Limiting Beliefs to Living Without Limits (May 2026)—has guided hundreds of thousands from surviving to thriving. As Wellness Coach for The TODAY Show's Start TODAY platform and former Host of PBS's wellness series "Inside Out," Yasmine has become a trusted voice in wellness and transformation. She's served as a featured instructor on the Melissa Wood Health platform and shared her expertise through many partnerships. Global corporations including Google, Pepsi, GE, Well & Good, Cigna Health, and Meta have invited her to guide their teams in creating lives that feel as good as they look. Her TED Talk on how boundaries make space for the things you want to enjoy in life and features in Forbes, InStyle, Refinery29, The Everygirl, Poosh, and major outlets have established her as the go-to expert for authentic transformation. An Air Force Veteran who worked with victims of domestic violence, Yasmine brings unique perspective to healing and resilience. A native New Yorker and mother of two, she now lives in Washington, DC where she continues to prove that your comeback isn't a crisis—it's clarity. And it's waiting for you.

Cheyenne is in conversation with Chloe Dulce Louvouezo. 

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063456198?ic_referral=pjyAAlhkUmvyT7isUjfAeZ-gB4fflY1XLhqQrMfKp80wM3R1A6HK4Sw-dWt4rE01QBn0Y_5TInLfX15GU8AUJcLHoeDEtGBf4rnDt-7A3IFMIv7oEs6Cy4fHeE35nQrUmaS8jrc

It’s 1972. Tricky Dick is in office, James Brown is on the radio, and Wayne Beasley reluctantly presides over the comings and goings of his barbers and patrons at Wayne’s Clip and Trim in Augusta, South Carolina. 
When one of Wayne’s former customers, an unassuming small-town son, is designated 4-F, unfit to serve in Vietnam, he seeks refuge in becoming the next best thing—a security guard for a downtown DC hotel. It is there on a hot summer’s night, that Wayne’s wayward patron interrupts a break-in that will disrupt the course of a nation’s history and his own.

Wesley Brown, author of Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Blue in Green: A Novella, once again remaps the tributaries that run into the stream of our American subconscious, by dipping into the headwaters of pivotal memories and histories to tell the tale from the perspective of the real folks whose stories were too long submerged. Without Frank Wills there is no Watergate. And without Watergate the veil of secrecy and corruption that came to define the Nixon years, warping the very fabric of political discourse from that moment on, would have remained firmly in place. Wesley Brown’s re-imagining of the life of Frank Wills reconciles the greatest heist of all—our place in the American story. 
What was stolen from Wills as he was briefly thrust into the spotlight, while excluded from the annals of history, is reclaimed, as Brown gives voice and breath to the people who loved him and the barber who did his best to guide him.

Wesley Brown is the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, a novella, and five plays. He is professor emeritus in English at Rutgers University and a former visiting professor in the Arts Division at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. He wrote the narration for a segment of the 1997 PBS documentary W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices, has held visiting writer residencies in creative writing at the University of Minnesota, New York University, Bennington College, and Sarah Lawrence College, and is co-editor of The Methuen Drama Anthology of American Women Playwrights: 1970–2020. A new edition of his first novel, Tragic Magic, was published, as a part of the Of the Diaspora series, by McSweeney’s in 2021. He lives in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Brown is in conversation with Lisa Page, the co-editor of We Wear The Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America, (Beacon Press). Her work has appeared in TheAtlantic, LitHub Weekly, The Crisis, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, Playboy, the Washington Post Book World, Playbill, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications and anthologies, including Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race (Doubleday). She has worked as a freelance writer, editor, speechwriter, lyricist, instructor, actor and literary consultant. She created the Playboy College Fiction Contest. She is the former President of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Lisa Page is assistant professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the George Washington University where she previously served as Interim Director of Africana Studies. She is also a resident faculty member of the Yale Writers’ Workshop. She lives outside Washington, DC.

PURCHASE:

https://politics-prose.com/book/9781963270655?ic_referral=ker76wfJJtdrMZoE9BXLUB_dUQVDzi8qq2SBMT7LXvwwM1bgk-7Wxjhrmf_NkPe7TmzMPbqFR3QiaZtVsC0PC2vmZMyPBhm4azGT5UI5GBAEy0USv8_JUFlvunr9v1ql9oP7Zu4