Violation

This "groundbreaking . . . career-defining book" from an iconic essayist features thirty years of fearless essays that refuse easy answers—from flies to families, abortion clinics to athletic fields—and proves that truth-telling means diving into ambiguity and finding wonder in what we'd rather ignore (The New Yorker)

Sallie Tisdale is the author of seven books on such varied subjects as medical technology, her pioneer ancestors, and Buddhist women teachers. Her many essays have appeared in Harper's, Conjunctions, The New Yorker, Antioch Review, The Threepenny Review, and many other journals. This first collection of work spans 30 years and includes an introduction and brief epilogues to each essay. Tisdale's questing curiosity pursues subjects from the biology of flies to the experience of working in an abortion clinic, why it is so difficult to play sports with men, and whether it's possible for writers to tell the truth. She restlessly returns to themes of the body, the family, and how we try to explain ourselves to each other. She is unwilling to settle for easy answers, and she finds the ambiguity and wonder underneath ordinary events. The collection includes a recent essay never before published, about the mystery of how we presentThe Millions, A Most Anticipated Book

"Groundbreaking. A career-defining book." —The New Yorker

"Sallie Tisdale’s lovely essays shouldn’t exist given that they perfectly capture the impossibility of writing." —Katy Waldman, Slate

"Throughout the collection, an ethos of self-effacement and clear-eyed commitment to her subjects seems to embody this tenet, even though Tisdale knows that writing and self-effacement are mutually exclusive. Nothing is objective, no matter how hard she labors to make it seem so. She is haunted by her failures of truth and objectivity. 'Only I know how carefully I’ve held the light so that the shadows fall just so,' she says. 'Artlessness is one of the most difficult effects of all.'" —Katie Pelletier, The Portland Mercury

"Portland writer Sally Tisdale is one of Oregon’s true literary treasures." —Think Out Loud, Oregon Public Broadcasting

"A Buddhist woman who's written about porn. Do you really need another reason to read her?" —Julia Lipscomb, Inlander

"The 'perfume' of Sallie Tisdale’s work will be enticing to all readers enamored of the essay form." —Lee Polevoi, Foreword Reviews


"Her sentences are astounding, somehow elegant and earthy both. An essay is a place to spend time in somebody else’s head listening to their thoughts, and Tisdale’s mind is a fascinating place to be." —Rebecca Hussey, Book Riot

"Compassion and empathy inform these gracefully wrought essays." —Kirkus Reviews

"Sallie Tisdale's Violation is a writer's bible and a reader's best friend. Bold and wise, galvanizing and grounding, Tisdale's essays are propulsive and frightening in their poignance and content. This is the essay collection you'll want to have with you on that hypothetical desert island." —Chloe Caldwell, author of Legs Get Led Astray and Women

"Sallie Tisdale is the real thing, a writer who thinks like a philosopher, observes like a journalist and sings on the page like a poet; in other words, the consummate and perfect essayist. She knocked my socks off when I first discovered her decades ago and now, reading this collection, I realize I haven’t found them since. Violation contains important work from an important writer. I’m so glad it’s out in the world." —Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion

"That Sallie Tisdale’s a treasure comes as no secret to lovers of the essay, and yet this happy gathering that spans the decades is revelatory, a fascinating look at the epic wanderings of a life mapped by curiosity." —Charles D'Ambrosio, author of Loitering: New and Collected Essays

"I’ve long admired Sallie Tisdale’s essays, and this collection brandishes her impressive strengths: she’s complicit without being woebegone, she’s philosophical without being windy or airy, and she’s empathetic without being hand-wringing." —David Shields, author of Life Is Short—Art Is Shorter: In Praise of BrevitySALLIE TISDALE is the author of seven books, including Talk Dirty to Me (Doubleday, 1994) and The Best Thing I Ever Tasted (Riverhead, 2000), a finalist for the James Beard Award for Writing. Her memoir Stepping Westward (Henry Holt, 1992) was named one of the 100 Notable Books of the West. Her most recent book is Women of the Way (HarperCollins, 2006). Her essays have appeared in such publications as Harper’s, Antioch Review, Conjunctions, Threepenny Review, The New Yorker, Tricycle, Creative Nonfiction, and Esquire.

Tisdale is the 2013 recipient of the Regional Arts and Culture Council Literary Fellowship. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Belles Lettres, the Pushcart Prize, the James Phelan Literary Award, the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year award, a Pope Foundation Award, and was a Dorothy and Arthur Shoenfeldt Distinguished Writer of the Year. Tisdale’s essay “Scars” won the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education National Gold Medal for feature writing. Her work has been reprinted in many anthologies, including Best American Spiritual Writing, Best Buddhist Writing, and Best American Science Writing. She has been a guest writer and teacher at several institutions, including the University of California-Davis, University of Montana, New York University, the Medill School of Journalism, Antioch University West, Reed College, and the Omega In