Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters are proud to present the Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of Evicted, Matthew Desmond and his new book Poverty, by America. He'll be in conversation with Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black. Please save the date and join us!

Please note:

• This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St. in Berkeley, CA. Advance sales end today at 12pm PT. We expect to have tickets available at the door, but this is not guaranteed. Questions? Write [email protected].
• Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event, and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols are subject to change.
• Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order a ticket now.
• It’s important to us that this event is accessible to anyone who would like to attend. If price is a barrier and you are interested in free or discounted tickets, please click here and while seats are available we will do our absolute best to accommodate you. We are an independent bookstore committed to paying living wages to our hard-working staff, and in order to cover our costs we are only able to provide so many accessible seats, so if you can afford a bundled ticket please select one of the following tiers here: Ticket + Book or 2 Tix + Book. Questions? Other accessibility requests? Write [email protected].
• We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Poverty, by America: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
• Order signed copies (while supplies last) of Orange is the New Black here.
• If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.

About the book

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? 

In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.

Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.

About the authors

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he joined the Harvard Society of Fellows as a Junior Fellow. He is the author of four books, including Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016), which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Carnegie Medal, and PEN / John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. The principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, Desmond’s research focuses on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate. Author photo by Barron Bixler.

Piper Kerman is a social justice advocate and the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Woman’s Prison. This eye-opening memoir recounts the year that Piper spent in federal prison for a crime she had committed ten years previously during a brief involvement with the drug trade. Compelling, moving, and often hilarious, Orange is the New Black explores issues of friendship and family, mental illness, the uneasy relationship between prisoner and jailor, and the almost complete lack of guidance our society offers for post-prison life. The book inspired the Peabody Award-winning, critically acclaimed Netflix series of the same name, and has been credited with radically increasing the public’s awareness about mass incarceration and the growing female prison population. Kerman speaks to audiences around the country, including the American Correctional Association’s Disproportionate Minority Confinement Task Force, federal probation officers, public defenders, justice reform advocates and volunteers, and formerly and currently incarcerated people. She serves on the board of the Women’s Prison Association and the advisory boards of the PEN America Writing For Justice Fellowship, InsideOUT Writers, Healing Broken Circles, and JustLeadershipUSA, and has spoken at the White House and testified before the US Senate. She speaks about learning from mistakes, the power of women’s communities, the need for prison reform and support for people after incarceration, her life and experiences, and the TV series. Read more about Piper here. Author photo by Michael Oppenheim.

Please note:

• This is a ticketed, in-person event to be held at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St. in Berkeley, CA.
• Masks will be required throughout the duration of the event, and capacity will be limited to allow indoor distancing. Protocols are subject to change.
• Because we’re limiting capacity, we can't guarantee we'll have space for walk-ins. The best way to ensure you’ll get a seat is to order a ticket now.
• It’s important to us that this event is accessible to anyone who would like to attend. If price is a barrier and you are interested in free or discounted tickets, please click here and while seats are available we will do our absolute best to accommodate you. We are an independent bookstore committed to paying living wages to our hard-working staff, and in order to cover our costs we are only able to provide so many accessible seats, so if you can afford a bundled ticket please select one of the following tiers here: Ticket + Book or 2 Tix + Book. Questions? Other accessibility requests? Write [email protected].
• We are happy to offer *signed copies* of Poverty, by America: order a ticket if you'd like to pick up a signed copy at the event, or order here if you just want a signed copy and no admission.
• Order signed copies (while supplies last) of Orange is the New Black here.
• If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.