Anna Clark

Journalist.

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The Second Sex?

April 2, 2006 by Anna Clark

My community-mate Katie and I have started a feminist book club. The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir (aka, Ms. Sartre) is our second selection (following Virginia Woolf)–and, thanks to its length, it will probably be our third and fourth selections as well.

This book is peculiar and dense–heartening and illuminating at points; at others odd, what with its 50-year-old biology. Also strange is the experience of reading a book that I’ve already read so much about; I almost felt like I already had an opinion about it before I opened its covers. I’m still working on reading de Beauvoir for herself, outside of its cultural weight as a historical icon. It’s like trying to read the U.S. Constitution entirely outside the context of the United States. But the fact is, this woman is brimming with ideas, and she is clearly taking pains to explore her questions deeply. She begins with her hook–"What is a woman?"–and doesn’t let go.

I admire the sheer endurance of her thinking. It’s a statement in itself.

Filed Under: Book Reviews

The Poisoned City

The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy by Anna Clark

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About Anna Clark

Anna Clark is a journalist in Detroit. She’s the author of The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy, which was named one of best books of the year by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus, Amazon, the New York Public Library, and others. It’s a Michigan Notable Book and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Anna’s articles have appeared in Elle, the New York Times, Politico, the Columbia Journalism Review, Next City, and other places. She edited A Detroit Anthology. Anna has been a Fulbright fellow in Kenya, and a Knight-Wallace journalism fellow at the University of Michigan.

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"I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven." Walt Whitman

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