Eula Biss Books

NOTES FROM NO MAN'S LAND: AMERICAN ESSAYS begins with a series of lynchings and ends with a series of apologies. Eula Biss explores race in America and her response to the topic is informed by the experiences chronicled in these essays.

Upon becoming a new mother, Eula Biss addresses a chronic condition of fear--fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what is in your child's air, food, mattress, medicine, and vaccines. She finds that you cannot immunize your child, or yourself, from the world. In this bold, fascinating book, Biss investigates the metaphors and myths surrounding our conception of immunity and its implications for the individual and the social body. As she hears more and more fears about vaccines, Biss researches what they mean for her own child, her immediate community, America, and the world, both historically and in the present moment. She extends a conversation with other mothers to meditations on Voltaire's Candide , Bram Stoker's Dracula , Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , Susan Sontag's AIDS and Its Metaphors , and beyond. On Immunity is a moving account of how we are all interconnected-our bodies and our fates.

Exploring themes of wealth, identity, and the human experience, this book challenges readers to confront their own values and societal norms. Through a blend of personal narrative and poetic prose, it delves into the complexities of ownership and belonging, prompting deep reflection on the nature of fulfillment. The author’s insightful observations and lyrical style transform everyday experiences into profound art, making it a compelling read that resonates with conscience and introspection.

Fifteen essays coedited by a collective of award-winning incarcerated writers, featuring contributions from Lacy M. Johnson, Kiese Laymon, Valeria Luiselli, Kao Kalia Yang, and more, with a foreword by Zeke Caligiuri and an introduction by Eula Biss.“This is a volume edited by the imprisoned, because the history of class has always been written by the powerful.”This groundbreaking anthology of essays edited by incarcerated writers takes a sharp look at the complexity and fluidity of class and caste systems in the United States. Featuring accounts that include gig work as a delivery driver, homelessness among trans youth, and life with immense student loan debt, in addition to transcripts of insightful discussions between the editors, American Precariat demonstrates how various and often invisible extreme instability can be. With the understanding that widespread recognition of collective precarity is an urgent concern, the anthology situates each individual portrait within societal structures of exclusion, scarcity, and criminality.These essays write through the silence around class to enumerate the risks that our material conditions leave us no choice but to take. A rendering of the present moment told from below, American Precariat shares stories of the unseen and the unspoken and articulates the lines of our division. In doing so, it offers healing for some of the world’s fractures.