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Virginia Eubanks

@virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social

610 followers 1.6K following 31 posts

Writing about violence and care. Memoir in 2026: A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving (FSG). Oral histories of welfare tech also IP: Not A Number (Voice of Witness/Haymarket). https://virginia-eubanks.com/ Most recent writing: https://link.tr/@virginiaeeubanks

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 9

Closing in...

A Publishers Marketplace Deal Report that reads:
Non-fiction: memoir November 9, 2022
Journalist and author of AUTOMATING INEQUALITY Virginia Eubanks's A GUIDE TO OPEN WATER LIFESAVING: A CAREGIVER'S JOURNEY INTO PTSD, a memoir expanding on the author's NYT Magazine Essay "His Trauma and Mine," combing personal narrative and investigative journalism to explore the extended effects of violence, the failures of healthcare and social support, the economic toll of long-term disability, and the love and labor required in related caregiving, pitched for readers of Barbara Ehrenreich, Eula Biss, and Anne Boyer, to Jenna Johnson at Farrar, Strauss by Sam Stoloff at Frances Goldin Literary Agency (world English). Rights: sg@goldinlit.com

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · 8d

I'm gonna report this every month.

Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 8d

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Sep 2

Preach.

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 24

4/4: Please, if you're able, help keep the public in public media right now.

adoptastation.org

It is especially crucial to support rural public media, as it often provides communities with their only local news and provide life-saving weather and emergency alerts.
ruralpublic.org

Adopt A Station - Rescue Public Media

Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a public media station. Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding.

adoptastation.org

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 24

3/4: In many ways, it's the model I've been trying to live up to ever since. I see lots of quotes if Timothy Snyder's first rule of defeating tyranny ("Don't obey in advance."), fewer of the second ("Defend institutions.") Public media in the United States is an institution worth defending.

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 24

2/4: Watching college students and local community members rise to the occasion, sleeping on studio couches, caravaning down to LA to cover the aftermath firsthand, and getting information out to a community hungry for factual, accurate, humane stories made an indelible impression on me.

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 24

1/4: I got my start in public media. I still remember when the Rodney King verdict came down my first year at KZSC. We had a remarkably good public affairs department.

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Reposted by Virginia Eubanks

Laura Mauldin @lauramauldin.bsky.social · Jul 7

I feel both joyful & terrified: My book is actually on the @eccobooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social website now! IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH: Love Stories from the Frontlines of America’s Caregiving Crisis will be out Feb 2026 ✨ eeeeek! www.harpercollins.com/products/in-...

In Sickness and in Health

An urgent and deeply affecting account of America's failure to provide meaningful support to its chronically ill and disabled citizens and our resulting...

www.harpercollins.com

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 4

I think I just coined the phrase "tyrannical lifestyle maintenance," and I'm very proud.

On a white background, black text reports no results for a DuckDuckGo search of "tyrannical lifestyle maintenance."

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jul 4

I learned it from Mark Rank's great lifecycle research on poverty.... 20 years old now, but absolutely still worth reading. academic.oup.com/book/2883

One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All

Abstract. Despite its enormous wealth, the United States leads the industrialized world in poverty. One Nation, Underprivileged unravels this disturbing pa

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Virginia Eubanks

Kat McGowan @mcgowankat.bsky.social · Jul 2

Also, Medicaid isn't just poor-people health insurance. It's the main payer for long-term care. Middle-class people can't afford nursing homes either at ~125k/yr. The typical outcome is that they "pay down" (go broke paying for care) to become eligible for Medicaid.

Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · Jul 2

There's a lot of focus on what Medicaid and ACA cuts would mean for hospitals, because hospitals have lobbyists. That doesn't negate what the cuts would mean for people, with about 12 million people projected to become uninsured due to the megabill.

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 25

Made up a little song for myself today:

"You are feeling insecure...
Because that's a natural part...
Of the process!"

#AmWriting #EditingKillsEgo #GuideToOpenWaterLifesaving

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 24

Thank you for your amazing work!!

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 21

Also, read everything @mcgowankat.bsky.social
has written for NPR on caregiving!

www.npr.org/people/g-s1-...

Kat McGowan

NPR stories by Kat McGowan

www.npr.org

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 21

"In the early 20th century, disabled and older people who needed help were relegated to almshouses, which were public institutions of last resort."

No matter what I write about, I always end up back at poorhouses.

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 21

Why is caregiving so hard in America? Excited to see this new film...

"Caregivers are on their own--and...spend an average of $7,242 out of pocket ea yr. According to a recent DoL report, they also miss out on an av of $43,500 in income due to the demands of adult care." www.npr.org/2025/06/20/n...

Why is caregiving so hard in America? The answers emerge in a new film

A new documentary on PBS shows what it's like to care for adult family members and recounts the history of caregiving policy in the U.S., revealing why those caring for family are often on their own.

www.npr.org

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

There are going to be Andrew Solomon-level endnotes on this book. Which is crazy, because it's a freaking #memoir.

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

All of the essays curated by @orionmagazine.bsky.social for mental health awareness month are worth a read! orionmagazine.org/article/hono...

Honoring Mental Health Awareness Month - Orion Magazine

A curated list of 12 stories

orionmagazine.org

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

Try Sky Follower Bridge to bring your X/Twitter followers over. www.wikihow.com/Import-Twitt...

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

"... much in the way my mama would her cigarette butts on the long drive down, the kind of love unafraid of losing, which is the kind of love that now I am not."

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

"Even then I loved orange groves like I loved the word grove—G-R-O-V-E—loved the way it was spelled, the last bit of the word love snuggled right inside that single-syllable’s opening growl, the kind of love okay with its own first letter pitched out the window..."

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 18

Holy crap this essay is amazing.

@nickolebrown.bsky.social ! THANK YOU!

orionmagazine.org/article/one-...

One Hundred Reasons Not to Die - Orion Magazine

Finding resilience amidst these many storms

orionmagazine.org

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 17

A quote that's resonating with me today from the manuscript of A Guide to Open Water Lifesaving:

"Care is both the hardest and the best thing we do as human beings. We should find better ways to share and support it, because it is difficult and because it is beautiful."

On a background of snow-covered steep mountains, artfully designed test in warm shades of orange and yellow reads: "Care is both the hardest and the best thing we do as human beings. We should find better ways to share and support it, both because it is difficult and because it is beautiful."

Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 12

Was hitting the point of diminishing returns enforcing desk discipline for these edits, so grabbed a camp site, took a paddle, swam in the river, slept under the stars. Then a hike and breakfast this morning and I'm back to the desk. Gas $30, campsite $18, food $20. 24 hours and $70 for the win.

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 9

I love the two weeks of voluptuous abundance when the roses and peonies first bloom. I can't keep up with the deadheading, and I'm always having to clean up the petals from the five or six arrangements I've got going in the house. And then, like smoke, they are gone 'til next year.

A white plastic basket filled with the withered petals of blush and shocking pick roses and peonies sits above a metal sink, also filled with the withered petals of blush and shocking pick roses and peonies.

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Virginia Eubanks @virginiaeeubanks.bsky.social · Jun 9

Personal writing is SO. MUCH. SCARIER. 🤣🤣😳

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