In an essay about my work, Larry Fondation writes, “Arizona is the bi-polar edge of America’s fascist impulse.” A story in his bookUnintended Consequencesbegins with the words, “Phoenix scares the hell out of me.”

When I first came here in 1995, I began to write about this place, and I have never stopped since then, even during five years of exile in Tennessee. Arizona is a place of last resort, where elected officials and law enforcers openly flout the law and brazenly...