Outta That Holler
“The rural poverty that created Dolly Parton.”
The Weight of a Nickel
At Virginia Quarterly Review, Sarah Smarsh looks at the high price of the American Dream through the lens of her upbringing as a member of a working poor farm family in Kansas.
Blood Brother
Sarah Smarsh writes about how rich drug companies buy plasma from the poor and working poor — literally feeding their wealth with one of the few renewable resources the poor have to sell — their blood.
Dangerous Idiots: How the Liberal Media Elite Failed Working-Class Americans
Trump supporters are not the caricatures journalists depict –- and native Kansan Sarah Smarsh sets out to correct what newsrooms get wrong.
The Case for More Female Cops
Nearly nine out of ten cops are men. Sarah Smarsh discusses the police force’s gender problem and a Wichita woman’s efforts inside the criminal justice system that failed her.
The First Person on Mars
“Evghenia Is on Mars” is a plot-rich fantasy Twitter account purportedly run by a female scientist delivering dispatches from Mars in 140-character bursts. In an unlikely but thoroughly wonderful essay, Smarsh uses Evghenia’s story as a jumping-off point to interrogate her own life, and the strange parallels in both their journeys.
The Shame of Poor Teeth in a Rich World
An essay about growing up poor in America, and the role of teeth as a class signifier.
Freedom Mandate
When the religious right co-opts the push to reinvigorate civics education, dubious legislation reveals the most powerful people in public schools: teachers.
