First published 2020
The Yale Review assembled voices from the front lines of 2020's upheaval to create this urgent collection. Poets, novelists, scholars, and healthcare workers contribute pieces that span from policy analysis to intimate lockdown experiences. The anthology captures the disorienting spring when the world stopped, examining both sweeping social justice questions and deeply personal moments of isolation. Contributors including Yusef Komunyakaa, Major Jackson, and Victoria Chang offer perspectives that range from ancient historical parallels to immediate medical realities. Katie Kitamura, Nell Freudenberger, and dozens of other writers provide what Kirkus called a literary response more swift and powerful than institutional pandemic responses. The collection serves as both contemporary witness and historical record, preserving the voices of a generation living through crisis in real time.
Genres: anthologies, contemporary, 21st-century, current-affairs, activism, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking, urgent
Tropes: contemporary-witness, crisis-in-real-time
Period: 2020
232 pages · Paperback · Yale University Press