Stephen Elliott felt what he was writing wasn't relevant in a time of war and so he began to write fiction based on the world's current events. He realized other authors were having the same dilemma. He acted upon this and put together this anthology after receiving overwhelming response from his writing peers.

Politically Inspired is all-original, never before published fiction inspired by current events. Contributors include:

• Charles Baxter, author of Feast of Love
• Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
• David Rees, author of Get Your War On
• Michelle Tea, author of Valencia and Chelsea Whistle; winner of the Lambda award for Best Lesbian Fiction
• Elizabeth Tallent, author of Honey and Museum Pieces; included twice in the Best American Short Stories anthology
• Tom Barbash, author of The Last Good Chance and the nonfiction book On Top Of The World: Cantor Fitzgerald And The 9/11 Tragedy
• Paul LaFarge, author of Artist Of The Missing and Hausmann Or The Distinction
• Zoe Trope, author of Please Don't Kill The Freshman
• Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country and The Names of the Dead
• ZZ Packer, author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
• Kola Boof, Sudanese-born author of Long Train to the Redeeming Sin
• Etel Adnan, author of Paris When It's Naked, Cities and Women, and Sitte Marie Rose, which has been translated into over ten languages and is considered a classic of Middle Eastern literature

1. The president's new clothes /Anne Ursu
2. Da' bomb /K. Kvashay-Boyle
3. Where Eric fell /ZZ Packer
4. Proper dress /Joan Wilking
5. Balancing genius /Peter Rock
6. Jumping Jacks /Doug Dorst
7. Innocent /Charles Baxter
8. 9/11 L.A. Bookstore /Michelle Tea
9. Dade County, November 2000 /Jim Shepard
10. Mr. Mxyzptlk's opus /Ben Greenman
11. The winning side /Alicia Erian
12. The K chronicles /Keith Knight
13. Should I be scared? /Amanda Eyre Ward
14. The patriot actor /Stephen Elliott
15. The great Rushdie /Stewart O'Nan — Duct soup /Andrew Neilsen Sparrow
16. End-of-the-world sex /Tsaurah Litzky
17. All in a day's work /Mistress Morgana
18. The one you meet everywhere /Kola Boof
19. Eight hundred pages /Elizabeth Tallent
20. I believe I'm in love with the government /Nasri Hajjaj ;translated byIbrahim Muhawi
21. Memo to our journalists /Mark Lee
22. The Shield /F.S. Yu
23. The vampires of Draconian Hill /Brian Gage Von Do
24. I am a CBU-87/B Combined Effects Munition (CEM) /David Rees
25. Lamentation over the destruction of Ur /Paul LaFarge
26. Freedom oil /Anthony Swofford
27. The smell of despair /Nick Taylor
28. The designated marksman /Otis Haschemeyer.