TALES OF TWO AMERICAS

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to the Rust Belt and down to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches across gaping chasms. Whether the cause of this inequality is systemic injustice, the entrenchment of racism in our culture, the long war on drugs, or immigration policies, it endangers not only the American Dream but our very lives.

In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared, and that in sharing our stories we can help to alleviate a suffering that touches so many people.

John Freeman is the editor of the literary magazine Freeman's. He was previously the editor of the literary magazine Granta and is a former president of the National Book Critics Circle. His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. He is the author of The Tyranny of E-mail and How to Read a Novelist, and a collection of poems, Maps.