Author Sarah Smarsh to speak at Clinton School event this week

“To find a more accurate vision of these United States, we must resist pat narratives about any group—including the working class on whom our current political situation is most often pinned.”- Sarah Smarsh

LITTLE ROCK, AR – The Clinton School for Social Policy will feature acclaimed Kansas author Sarah Smarsh in their next Speaker Series event this Wednesday, December 11, at 6pm.

Sarah Smarsh is an author, educator, speaker and journalist who focuses on socioeconomic class and rural America. Her book “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth” examines historic economic inequality and tells the story of her upbringing among the working poor on a Kansas farm.

Smarsh was born a fifth-generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, the child of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. In “Heartland” she introduces readers to a compelling cast of characters from her own family—grandmothers who act as second mothers, farmers who work themselves to the bone, builders who can’t afford their own homes, children who move from school to school.

Smarsh maps their lives against the destruction of the working class wrought by public policy: the demise of the family farm, the dismantling of public health care, the defunding of public schools, wages so stagnant that full-time laborers could no longer pay the bills.

Part memoir, part social analysis, part cultural commentary, “Heartland” is an uncompromising look at class, identity and the perils of economic hardship in a wealthy nation.

The event will commence at 6pm in Sturgis Hall with a book signing to follow. All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public.

Sturgis Hall is located at 1200 President Clinton Blvd, Little Rock, in the historic Choctaw Station of the Rock Island Railroad. Parking is available adjacent to the building.

For further information or to reserve seats please email publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or call (501) 683-5239.