Q. Who is The Nation Guide to the Nation's target reader?

A. We naturally thought first of the Nation community -- some 180,000  subscribers, including 27, 000 Nation Associates, plus editors, contributors and friends. Unlike The New Yorker, which was not for  the little old lady in Dubuque, The Nation Guide is for people -- and  including little old ladies -- on the left who live in small towns or  big cities and who want to connect with others with shared values.  It's meant to inform and inspire -- and to be fun to read. It has a  sense of humor. We see the Guide as a metaphorical stone dropped in a  pond, spreading out in concentric circles from Island Nation to the greater universe of liberals, progressives, Libertarians, sensible Republicans and just plain independent-minded, free-thinking people  who, though don't take any guff from politicians, think government  might be part of the solution.

Q. How did the idea for the Guide come about?

A. I can remember Victor [Navasky then the editor and publisher] talking  about such a guide more than ten years ago. It immediately appealed to me as a potentially synergistic, catalytic book about the Left  that would stimulate thought and action (and sales) like the legendary Whole Earth Catalogue had done. The idea was to do a kind of Whole Left Catalogue. In 1996 I drew up a proposal to dangle  before potential publishers, but our attention turned to other  matters and the dream was deferred.  A couple of years ago Victor in his characteristic out-of-the-blue way asked me about the Proposal, which by then I'd totally forgotten about. Mirabile dictu, I found it  in my ancient files, dusted it off and with Katrina [vanden Heuvel, current editor and publisher] applying her shrewd editorial eye we set about bringing it up to speed for the 21st century.

Q. How did you compile the Guide? How long did it take?

A. After Victor, Katrina and I first worked up a Proposal and our  agent, Chris Calhoun, sold it to Vintage Books, I hired two brilliant former Nation interns as researchers and set them loose. They turned  up tons of wonderful material.  I also did parallel research of my own, and I wrote it up section by section. Most valuable of all, were the recommendations and tips sent in by Nation editors, readers and particularly Nation Associates from all over the country.  We have an  e-list of readers, plus our Associates list, both of which we  
regularly polled.  Whatís a good lefty bookshop in your neck of the woods? Whatís your favorite greenmarket?  Organic restaurant?  Political bar and coffee shop? And on and on. These folks were unfailingly helpful and gave us the geographical reach we needed.
 
Towards the end, as our deadline loomed, we drafted a whole incoming class of Nation interns for a crash research job. We flooded the zone  in areas where we were light on coverage -- say, green building  supplies, or ecofriendly architects, or progressive reading groups,  etc. Most important of all was the section we called "Sex... Romance!... Love?" I had my doubts it could be done, but I must say  they went over the top on that one. Look up the Smitten Kitten, a  Minneapolis sex- toy shop staffed by Swedish-descended sex therapists  (I exaggerate), and $pread magazine, a trade journal for sex workers. All in all it took a bit over a year.  And we made our deadline.

Q. Any surprises?

A. I was surprised at how some of these coffee shops and bookstores,  especially, served as centers of progressive intellectual and political life in their communities. I learned what an amazingly  large, if informal, progressive "infrastructure" is in place, locally  and nationally. And how much passion and ingenuity is out there. I  was constantly hearing about new organizations and groups and causes with fascinating stories -- crazy art collectives, activist think  tanks, disputatious reading clubs, documentary filmmakers who work  closely with a left audience, proactive talk jocks who promote immigrant rights, on and on.  And these led us to other groups -- new  sub-categories on my target list, new fields to explore. The list of  general topics I'd drawn up just kept serendipitously expanding,

Q. What's your favorite American place?

A. Nantucket, where I can mooch on my brother, who has a house there. By now the real estate bubble has leaked and the CEO invasion, which threatened to turn this pristine sanctuary into a billionaires' playground, has ebbed. But the beautiful beaches, moors, fields and habitats are eternal, a lift to the spirit thirty miles from mainland turmoil.

Q. What is the Left Heritage Trail?

A. It's a virtual history tour, a feature running through the book, describing places all over the USA that are historical markers in the struggle of the common people for a better world. It tells you about  the monument marking the Ludlow massacre in Colorado. Or the site of  the Great Homestead strike in Pittsburgh. Or Woody Guthrieís home town Okemah, Oklahoma, which he called "one of the singiest, square-dancingest, drinkingist, preachingist, walkingiest, talkingest,  laughingest, cryingest, shootingest, fistfightingest, bleedingest,  gamblingest" places in America. The Left Heritage Trail commemorates not great battles or great men but the victories and defeats of the  ordinary people. As Howard Zinn, who knows a thing or two about people's history, writes, these sites "represent events in history overlooked or minimized in the orthodox telling of history."

Q. How do you plan to promote the book?

A. We're going the usual route of radio, TV newspaper interviews -- mainly  lefty outlets, at least at first. We're running ads weekly in the magazine and on our website. We're cosponsoring events in four major  cities -- Chicago, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Washington -- with Living  Liberally, a nationwide group with some 70 chapters of people who meet, drink, talk, see movies, etc. together. And much more to come as the book gathers traction -- we hope!  There's a lot of enthusiasm  out there among Progressive folk who were mobilized by the Obama campaign and want to help him, or steer him in a more progressive direction.

Q. If readers find their favorite places have been left out, what should they do?

A. Go to guide@thenation.com and tell us about it. Or write to me c/o The Nation, 33 Irving Place, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003.