Puyallup, Washington (an interrogation)

Scott McClanahan on “Puyallup, Washington (an interrogation),” a chapbook debuting at the AWP Conference in Seattle from Chapbook Genius, an imprint of Publishing Genius Press:

“I’m not going to do one of those typical blurb things and say Joseph Riippi is a mix between Che Guevara and Susan B. Anthony. I’m not going to say if Anna Akhmatova and Terry Southern had a baby it would be Joseph Riippi. I’m going to tell you Joseph Riippi is Joseph Riippi and that’s enough for me. And Joseph Riippi’s Puyallup, Washington is a bad ass book from a bad ass boy. You’re going to find all kinds of stuff in here like babies and mountains, a guy named Ezra, latitudes and longitudes, census data, town fairs and the story of time. Who doesn’t like latitudes and longitudes and mountains? If you don’t, then I want absolutely nothing to do with you—and Joseph Riippi doesn’t either.”