A SECRET HISTORY OF WORLD WIDE OUTAGE by Elizabeth O'Brien

Elizabeth O’Brien lives in Minneapolis, where she earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Minnesota and served as editor of dislocate. She is the recipient of a Minnesota Emerging Writers’ Grant through the Loft Literary Center, and the James Wright Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her work—poetry & prose—has appeared in many journals and magazines, including New England Review, The Rumpus, Tin House, Wigleaf, Pank, Diagram, Radar Poetry,Revolver, Sixth Finch, and others.

 

TO WHOM IT CONCERNS, RE: World Wide Outage

In addition to the cover letter, enclosed please find the following materials.

1. Assets including but not limited to lakes, oceans, rivers, puddles, girls, and other assorted bodies of water, as well as a fine collection of second-hand clothes and tarnished costume jewelry (note: all assets are guaranteed to be in usable condition, if a little wet). 2. Liabilities including but not limited to insufficient funds, malfunctioning equipment, flood damage, and missing data. 3. Fifteen new poems by Elizabeth O’Brien investigating the value of vulnerability and the nature of inevitability in a gorgeous, irrepressible world on the verge of collapse.