He plunged the point of the spade into the cold, stiff earth, cracking the soil and grinding the steel blade against the small granite pebbles below. It made a sound like sharpening a knife, slicing the ground in two.

Applying a little pressure with his foot, he pushed the blade further, pulled down on the handle with both hands and turned up a shovelful of black dirt and rock.

On the outskirts of the property, just inside the wood line, no one was looking as he put the spade into the earth again. He hoped he had found the perfect spot. No one was around for miles. They wouldn’t see him digging and start to ask questions. And anyway, he didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t something to be talked about. At least not right now.

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Our New Editors Work For Mankind

Currently we are grooming a new fiction and poetry editor, which certainly makes for exciting times here at DSM headquarters. Both players bring unique skills and solid gameplans to our team. Stay tuned for a formal introduction later this week. Speaking of players, authors and their books have long been part of an elaborate full-court press that corners potential readers with effective marketing and design. Dwight Garner, a book critic (playa!) with the New York Times, has assembled a collage of noteworthy jacket covers from years gone by. Elsewhere, we know politics is a game, albeit one that’s played on an international field. To make sense of it all, Mitch Dickstein documents Communism and American politics in the 1930s. Check out a review of his new book in SF Gate. A stay-at-home writer huffs and puffs in the Huffington Post, Princeton University releases a tome of Islamic study, and Dublin’s IMPAC literary award announces its long list. Last but not least, we have two influential French men, now both dead, who changed the way we read poetry and view primitive cultures. Arthur and Claude, welcome to DSM. You’re in good company. And rest assured, two more newbies are on their way. — Kevin Murphy

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