Synopses & Reviews
While many recent books have thoughtfully examined the plight of the working poor in America, none of the authors of these books is able to claim a working-class background, and there are associated methodological and ethical concerns raised when most of the explicatory writing on how poverty affects women and girls is done by educated, upper-class journalists. It was these concerns that prompted indie icon Michelle Tea whose memoir,
The Chelsea Whistle, details her own working-class roots in gritty Chelsea, Massachusetts to collect these fierce, honest, tender essays written by writers who cant go home to the suburbs when their assignment is over. These wide-ranging essays cover everything from stealing and selling blood to make ends meet; to jumping class; how if time equals money, then being poor means waiting; surviving and returning to the ghetto; and how feminine identity is shaped by poverty.
Contributors include Dorothy Allison, Diane Di Prima, Terri Griffith, Daisy Hernandez, Frances Varian, Eileen Myles, Shawna Kenney, Siobhan Brooks, Terry Ryan, and more.
Synopsis
The first anthology of writing by working-class women.
Synopsis
An urgent testament to the trials of life for women living without a financial safety net Indie icon Michelle Tea -- whose memoir The Chelsea Whistle details her own working-class roots in gritty Chelsea, Massachusetts -- shares these fierce, honest, tender essays written by women who can't go home to the suburbs when ends don't meet. When jobs are scarce and the money has dwindled, these writers have nowhere to go but below the poverty line. The writers offer their different stories not for sympathy or sadness, but an unvarnished portrait of how it was, is, and will be for generations of women growing up working class in America. These wide-ranging essays cover everything from selling blood for grocery money to the culture shock of "jumping" class. Contributors include Dorothy Allison, Bee Lavender, Eileen Myles, and Daisy Hern ez.
About the Author
Michelle Tea is the author of The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America, the Lambda awardwinning Valencia, and The Chelsea Whistle, and coeditor of Pills, Thrills, Chills, and Heartache. She lives in San Francisco.