About this item
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities - and strengths - of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton. In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors," Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash.
About the Author
Sarah Smarsh is a Kansas-based journalist who has reported for The New York Times, The Guardian and many other publications. Her first book, Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, was a finalist for the National Book Award. A 2018 research fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Smarsh is a frequent speaker and commentator on economic inequality.
