Endorsements (potential): Barbara Browning, Eugene Lim, Alex Chee, Renee Gladman Early access copies National print, radio, and online campaign Targeted bookseller mailing Excerpts in BOMB, Believer Logger, Frieze, LARB blog Advertising: Bookforum, LARB Promotion at: BookExpo America, Winter Institute, AWP Promotion on Coffee House Press e-newsletter, website, and social media channels Promotion on Emily Books e-newsletter, website, and social media channels Giveaways on Twitter, Instagram & Goodreads Simultaneous print and e-book release, with e-book ISBN to be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed

When Trisha Low moves west, her journey is motivated by the need to arrive “somewhere better”—someplace utopian, like revolution; or safe, like home; or even clarifying, like identity. Instead, she faces the end of her relationships, a family whose values she has difficulty sharing, and America’s casual racism, sexism, and homophobia. In this book-length essay, the problem of how to account for one's life comes to the fore—sliding unpredictably between memory, speculation, self-criticism, and art criticism, Low seeks answers that she knows she won't find. Attempting to reconcile her desires with her radical politics, she asks: do our quests to fulfill our deepest wishes propel us forward, or keep us trapped in the rubble of our deteriorating world?