May 12 is John Ross Day!

Here’s a reason to love San Francisco: the Board of Supervisors has decreed that May 12 shall be a day to honor the vestigial Wobbly, visionary, poet, journalist, and all around literary maverick John Ross. He’s scheduled to receive the honor at City Hall, during their annual “Poets Under the Dome” event – although I’m told he may use the occasion to protest the City’s treatment of the homeless, which would only be appropriate.

If you’d like a sense of what Mr. Ross has been up to recently, check out this recent account on the Bay Guardian’s blog. When not harassing repressive authorities, Mr. Ross has been writing a followup to his marvelous Murdered by Capitalism – Nation Books is proud to be publishing, this November, El Monstruo, an epic lovesong to the urban monstrosity that is Mexico City. Attached is a little flier they drew up to spread the early word. If you’ve got a place to display it, that would be marvelous. Even if you don’t, please salute Mr. Ross and his uniquely distinguished career…and consider once again displaying his backlist.

Murdered By Capitalism (Nation Books, 9781560255789)

Zapatistas!: Making another World Possible (Nation Books, 9781560258742)

El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City (Nation Books, 9781568584249 - available November, 2009)