Donna Haskins defeats the devil
Onaje X. O. Woodbine’s book about a Black woman’s life is a model of ethnographic work that centers the voice of its subject.
poverty
A memoir of hardship and gratitude in Appalachia
Cassie Chambers tells family stories and considers the history of the people of Owsley County, Kentucky.
How the security culture has burdened women
Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz shows how the post-9/11 US has intensified control of women’s bodies.
The abundance of giving
A maid bears witness
Stephanie Land's memoir reveals the intimacy and power of a housecleaner’s labor.
As Père Diegue surveyed the unfinished classroom, he remarked: “I’m beginning to understand why I am here.”
Making work a prerequisite for benefits is costly, inefficient, and ineffective.
The stubborn love and inflexible mercy of Dorothy Day
More than a memoir, Kate Hennessy's book about her grandmother is a participant biography written from the inside out.
Poverty of spirit, like any kind of poverty, is unenviable but survivable.
Who I'd invite to my writers' dinner party
Jesus isn’t pitting himself against poor people. He’s one of them.
Poverty's lifelong damage
Decades worth of data have proven that poverty shortens lives. Will anyone respond?
When mercy and justice meet
As we make laws and try to adjudicate justice, we often lose sight of the human faces affected.
Poverty and blame in Appalachia
More jobs would help, says J. D. Vance. So would a stronger work ethic.
Overall, though, it was a moving book that certainly had me reflecting on the fragility of my own journey, and the many ways it could have continued down a very different path that where I find myself today. Hopefully such a book would open us up to our shared humanity and make us less likely to use one dimensional categories like “thugs,” and “those people” to define other people. We would all be more compassionate if we identified more deeply with those whose journeys have taken hard and painful turns.