While the Republican National Convention gets underway in Tampa, Beacon Press announces our own campaign: 

Elinor Lipman for Tweet Laureate!*

*This campaign is intended for parody only. Beacon Press does not endorse any one candidate, especially Tweet Laureate, since it doesn't exist. The book, however, is real, and you can win a copy!

In June 2011, much-loved novelist Elinor Lipman made a pledge to post one political tweet poem a day until the presidential election. For over a year, she has risen early to read the headlines and track the latest political debacles, then brought the tumult of the election season to the Twittersphere in the form of one 140-character rhyming poem every day.

And now, the best of these gems has been collected in a book: Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. (Available wherever books are sold, in paperback and for Kindle, Nook, iPad, or Google ebook.) 

Elinor Lipman's proven track record of providing a daily dose of much-needed humor in verse makes her the best (and, as far as we know, only) candidate for Tweet Laureate. Tweet your support and be entered to win a campaign button and a copy of Tweet Land of Liberty!

To enter, this text:

I support a funnier America! @ElinorLipman for #TweetLaureate: http://goo.gl/Bjnjp #TweetLandofLiberty

Lipman has already gathered endorsements (if not generous financial contributions to a shady Super PAC) from a wide range of supporters:

"First I laughed my way through Elinor Lipman's book of political tweets. Then I put my ear to the ground and listened to Molly Ivins guffawing from the grave. Lipman is a piquant poetic rock star! " —Wally Lamb 

"This year, has there any better way to revel in the political process than to pour a cup of coffee, log into Twitter, and read one of Elinor Lipman's clever, catchy tweets about the race for the presidency? With humor, wit, and no small share of brilliance, Lipman has cataloged the 2012 election in delectable sound bytes that manage to capture what we're all secretly thinking—in rhyme, and in less than 140 characters." —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Lone Wolf and Sing You Home 

"If brevity be The soul of wit/ Then Elinor has A surefire hit." —Alex Beam 

"Devilishly and deliciously witty. We could all use a laugh a day and Elinor Lipman has given me that." —Judy Blume 

"It's nice to see that Lipman's wit has escaped the hell of Twitter and collected itself in a book." —Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom 

"A devotion of fearless, sassy, sublime insights, that should be carried into the voting booth of our daily lives—each poem read again and again—before any lever is pulled." —Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry 

"So it has come to this! Of thee I zing. I love it." —Lois Lowry 

"The only sane, smart and witty thing to come out of the Republican primaries." —Stephen McCauley 

"Jon Stewart in 140 characters -- and in the morning. What could be better?" —Stacy Schiff 

"Winsome, witty and winning! I don't know how she does it!! " —Anita Shreve 

"Elinor Lipman tweets like a nightingale with an eagle eye." —Cathleen Schine 

"Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, Calvin Trillin, and Elinor Lipman!!" —Mameve Medwed 

"Elinor Lipman is to tweets what Shakespeare is to sonnets." —Firoozeh Dumas 

"There once was a Lipman on Twitter, who made every liberal titter." —Michael Lowenthal 

"I'm beset with Lipmania." —Henry Alford 

"Wise and sassy and too fun to miss!" —Jill McCorkle