These Are Strange Times, My Dear: Field Notes from the Republic

"In these pointed and wide-ranging essays, Wendy Willis explores everything from personal resistance to the rise of political podcasts, civic loneliness to the exploitation of personal data, public outrage to the opioid crisis-all with a poet's gift for finding the sacred in the mundane, a hope in the dark. One of the country's sharpest observers of politics, art, and the American spirit, Willis returns often to the demanding question posed by Czech writer, activist, and politician Václav Havel- What does it mean to live in truth? Her view is honed by her place as a poet, as a mother, and, when necessary, as an activist. Together, the essays in These Are Strange Times, My Dear work within that largely unmapped place where the heartbreaks and uncertainties of one's inner life brush up against the cruelties and responsibilities of politics and government and our daily lives."

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION CHRONICLING THE HISTORY OF THE SIEGE Chronicling the History of the Siege: A Mid-Winter's Meditation on Resistance Living Among the Things: On Civic Loneliness A Million People on One String: Big Data and the Poetic Imagination The Night Sits Wherever You Are: On Transparency & Secrets I Hear the Place That Can't Be Named: One Writer's Reflections on the Right to Be Forgotten Tilt: On Public Outrage A GNOSTIC BILL OF RIGHTS A Gnostic Bill of Rights BECOMING CITIZEN Becoming Citizen Buying Our Way Home The Rim of the Wound: An Open Letter to the Students of Columbia University's Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board, with a Special Note to My Own Daughters Where the World I Know and the World I Fear Threaten to Meet Love Does Not Boast The Sacred & Profane of Vote by Mail I'd Have to Cry these Wounds to Mourn for Us THE WORLD MADE FLESH Reckoning with the Bros: Donald Trump, Robert Bly and Swimming in the Sea of Grief An All or Nothing Gamble: Václav Havel and his Spiritual Revolution These are Strange Times, My Dear: Considering Ai Weiwei's @Large The Word Made Flesh: On Encountering the Work of Marcel Broodthaers Peeping in the Crack under the Goddamn Door: One Citizen's Reflections on The Phenom that is S-Town 94 The Perfume of Resistance: A Talk Given at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs

About the Author :
Wendy Willis is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. Winner of the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, she has published two books of poetry. Willis is a lawyer, the executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and the founder and director of Oregon's Kitchen Table at Portland State University.

Review :
Praise for These Are Strange Times, My Dear Finalist for the 2019 Oregon Book Awards Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction“A self–described 'evangelist of the word,' lawyer and poet Willis dives deep in this collection of essays. Where else might one find mention of Thomas Jefferson and Harvey Weinstein (though not in the same essay)? . . . Indeed, in all of the essays, Willis offers a fresh perspective on many cultural tropes . . . For those who want to share a deeper experience of life, with all its loneliness and fragility, Willis is an apt companion.” —Booklist “Offers a unique vision for life in such challenging times . . . Willis’s nuanced and interior approach to politics is a welcome departure from the harsh rhetoric so popular today. Even readers who disagree with her will appreciate her sincerity and experiences as a mother, lawyer, and author.” —Library Journal “Her best essays combine rigor with sensory observation, ranging widely among varied interests . . . A compassionate, measured voice that serves as an antidote to strident pontificating.” —Kirkus Reviews “[An] impassioned, wry perspective informs these essays, which sit at the intersection between the political and the personal. They’re striking for their candor and willingness to consider complexity, whether she’s pondering public protest or private sorrows.” —Amy Wang, The Oregonian