About this item
A collection of compelling, hard-hitting first-person essays, poems, and photos that expose what our punitive social systems do to so many Americans.. Going for Broke, edited by Alissa Quart, Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and David Wallis, former Managing Director of EHRP, gives voice to a range of gifted writers for whom "economic precarity" is more than just another assignment. All illustrate what the late Barbara Ehrenreich, who conceived of EHRP, once described as "the real face of journalism today: not million dollar-a-year anchorpersons, but low-wage workers and downwardly spiraling professionals.". One essayist and grocery store worker describes what it is like to be an "essential worker" during the pandemic; another reporter and military veteran details his experience with homelessness and what would have actually helped him at the time.
About the Author
I am the author of the forthcoming Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America, the three non-fiction books Branded, Hothouse Kids and Republic of Outsiders and the poetry book Monetized. I am also the Executive Editor of the non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and write the Outclassed column for The Guardian as well as for publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic and The New York Review of Books. My poetry has appeared in the London Review of Books and The Nation et al. I was a 2018 Columbia University Journalism School Alumni Awardee and was a 2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard and have been nominated for an Emmy and an ASME. I have also taught at Columbia University's Journalism School and many other universities. You can read more of my work at alissaquart.com or follow me on Twitter @lisquart. I live in New York City with my husband, daughter and hamster.
