American Precariat

Praise for American Precariat

"It’s a powerful, incisive and provocative collection.” —Truthout

“Important stories of the unseen and unspoken that illuminate a growing class in America.” —Kirkus

“The variety of selections impresses, and the stories outrage. The result is a searing overview of how America’s financial and social systems fail ordinary people.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wrenching but ultimately hopeful, the collection suggests that those of us living on the edge in one way or another would benefit from understanding our common condition.”  —Booklist

“American Precariat is a vital text, one that I believe will echo through history as a way to highlight the vast, full lives of people impacted by, or witness to, the sometimes violent machinery of a country. I am thankful for the clarity, honesty, generosity, and stunning writing within these pages.”  —Hanif Abdurraqib

“The prison industrial complex, the great sea monster at work in America today, is being fed a steady diet of deep feeling tenderhearted write or die human beings. American Precariat, fat and urgent with profound un-incarcerated living truths, slays how it feels to be walking a tightrope in the belly of this beast. Fulsome and incendiary.”  —Nikki Finny

“Here are some of our most vital storytellers, talking about justice, violence, home and punishment, their work chosen by writers who’ve learned the true cost of these values in their own lives. American Precariat is a thrilling new model for how to open up a space in which to talk about the America that actually is, not the one of dreams. I am in awe of what they have assembled. This heart-sickening and yet hopeful-making book should be required reading everywhere.”  —John Freeman

“American Precariat is unlike any book I've ever encountered, and I am changed by hearing the many voices in this collection. The writers and editors shine a light on precarity from the inside of their own experiences of it, making this book both an incisive social critique and a manual for practicing compassion. This book is revolutionary, and every American needs to read it.”  —Grace Cho

“American Precariat is a stunning collection. Varied and yet deeply coherent, broad and yet bound, different and meaningfully familiar. It’s powerful, and the structure of reflections was new and so compelling to me.” —Danielle Sered