I was up at midnight last night when Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy came out on Netflix. I couldn’t remember what I had said in my interview, and so I went to sleep without watching it. The interesting (nail-biting) thing about being interviewed for a documentary is that you usually don’t see a preview of the work. My film agent negotiated the contract, so I knew that I was in the documentary and that the title of my book was included in the credits. But beyond that, much was unknown.

The production team filmed interviews with me in 2025, and the host, comedian Mo Gilligan, went to Arkansas to spend time with Venceremos, the labor rights organization that I write about in my book, Life and Death of the American Worker.

I watched the documentary this afternoon and was delighted to see Mo Gilligan and Venceremos co-founder Magaly Licolli in Springdale filming in front of one of the Tyson Foods plants that I wrote about in my book. In one scene in the documentary, when the police show up outside the Tyson Foods plant, Mo, who is crossing the street with Magaly, says, “I’m black, you’re Hispanic, we have not got a chance.”

It was a relief to find out what I said in the documentary: I compared the meatpacking company model of vertical integration to a black hole, and I talked about the brutality of chicken catching. I continue to love a good Arkansas story, a good southern story, a story about immigrant poultry processing workers in the Ozarks organizing to improve labor conditions at one of the largest corporations on this earth.

After my book came out, I got invited to the Miami Book Fair where I met Patti Smith. She was supposed to talk about her newest book, but everyone in the audience wanted her to sing “People Have the Power.” I close my eyes, and I can hear her singing.

I awakened to the cry
that the people have the power
to redeem the work of fools
upon the meek the graces shower
it’s decreed the people rule

The people have the power,

Love,

Alice

In June, Celia Vidal of Radio Nacional España interviewed me about “The Reality Behind the US Meatpacking Industry.” I interviewed legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta for the summer print edition of Elle Magazine. This fall, I will be in Italy for a book tour of the Italian translation of Life and Death of the American Worker. And in October, I will attend one of my favorite gatherings of journalists from around the globe at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of There Is No Place For Us

Last year, I did some interviews for the documentary Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy. It will launch worldwide on Netflix on the 5th August 2026. Made by the Mindhouse team, the people behind Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, the doc follows British comedian Mo Gilligan as he tries to understand our obsession with fried chicken. In my interview for the documentary, I shared everything I learned while writing my book, Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company. I hope what I discussed will continue to help others learn about labor conditions for workers in the poultry processing industry. I will leave you with what I wrote in my book:

I am moved to do this work by what author C. E. Morgan describes as “moral beauty.” In a 2016 interview, she said: I think of moral beauty as what is the good and the just—terms perhaps best defined by their opposite: evil. Evil is the willingness to do damage to the other; its maximal expression is murder, but it includes a great deal of subtle and not-so-subtle injuries as it advances to that extreme. Evil acts reduce the other to an object, a being to its component parts, and obliterate subjectivity. Evil’s breeding ground is a lack of empathy. So I locate moral beauty in an other regarding ethic. Or perhaps it’s better to say it’s not located anywhere, because it’s not a static entity. It’s love, and love is not a feeling but an action.

This book explores the moral beauty of the immigrants who process our nation’s meat and poultry, whose commitment to the good and the just is worthy of our attention.

Personal News and Events

In June, Celia Vidal of Radio Nacional España interviewed me about “The Reality Behind the US Meatpacking Industry.” I interviewed legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta for the summer print edition of Elle Magazine. This fall, I will be in Italy for a book tour of the Italian translation of Life and Death of the American Worker. And in October, I will attend one of my favorite gatherings of journalists from around the globe at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of There Is No Place For Us

I returned to Kentucky to visit friends from Berea College a few weeks ago. I was flooded with memories of that time - living in a cabin in the woods, thinking I could make extra money selling my plasma, working at a coffee shop, waitressing, all the while burning to be a writer. While at Berea, I took a class on the Harlem Renaissance with poet Nikky Finney. In the 25 years since I studied with her, I have reread one email she sent me thousands of times. She wrote:

“Don’t be stopped or slowed down by the word ‘Writer.’ A writer is one who writes.”

“So much of the world needs the muscle found in true words. Please keep sending what your head and belly make as one loaf.”

I think of Nikky more in the age of AI, because I am flooded with emails written by a machine - a soulless, meaningless pile of words.

I will anchor myself to the poets now and forever,

Alice

Personal News and Events

In June, Celia Vidal of Radio Nacional España interviewed me about “The Reality Behind the US Meatpacking Industry.” I interviewed legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta for the summer print edition of Elle Magazine. This fall, I will be in Italy for a book tour of the Italian translation of Life and Death of the American Worker. And in October, I will attend one of my favorite gatherings of journalists from around the globe at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of There Is No Place For Us

And when I read, I want to be in relation with a human being. That’s why I read. Likewise, a machine instructed to make love to me might technically be excellent at making love to me, but that won’t do either. – Zadie Smith

I got the idea for the article while I was driving around rural Arkansas in 2023. There is something to be said for wandering whether in body or mind.

I pitched the idea to an editor the summer of 2025. At the same time, I applied for a grant for the project and a residency. I signed the contract for the article in November, and in December I got word of the funding and the residency.

I spent the spring of 2026 reporting the article with a photographer. I didn’t feel in any way done with the reporting, but I went off to the residency for a month.

Then I started a new job as an investigative journalist in Arizona, and I had to drive from Little Rock to Phoenix. I installed myself in the desert. It was hard for me to finish the draft. Even though I probably only needed two days of clear thinking, I just couldn’t get it together.

So I wallowed and felt terrible about myself for a few months. And then I turned in a draft in September 2025. I didn’t hear back from my editor for months, which made me imagine 77 types of disaster.

In December, the editor wrote me. He did not send me edits but attached a note about my article. The note is the closest reading of my work that exists on this earth, the kind of note editors don’t send anymore. I keep thinking I should frame it.

I told the editor I would get a revised draft back to him in a month. Four months later, with a pep talk from a friend, I convinced myself to finish the draft.

I sent it to the editor in May 2026. In June, he said it might be published by October.

To those wildly and frustratingly human processes,

Alice

News and Events:

I interviewed legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta for the summer print edition of Elle Magazine. In September, I will be in Italy for the Italian translation of Life and Death of the American Worker. And in October, I will attend one of my favorite gatherings of journalists from around the globe at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of There Is No Place For Us

On this postcard that poet Allen Ginsberg sent to my mom in 1975, he wrote, “Oh Dakini!”

Like many people, I ended up back home living with my parents during the pandemic. The unlikely result of this time with my parents is that I have developed an expertise in letters, literary estates, and copyright law.

I discovered that my mother, in her youth, was a poet groupie. And she maintained an epistolary friendship with several poets.

My mom used to read Ginsberg’s Howl out loud to me as a child, but I had never asked her anything about him: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…”

I did not ask, “Do you know Allen Ginsberg?” And she never told me anything until we were living together during the pandemic, and she shared the Ginsberg postcard. It was in a plastic Ziploc bag with some other letters from poet Robert Bly. I wondered if she stored them in her closet or where they had been. Mothers, full of mysteries!

She met Ginsberg at the First Annual Great Mother Conference in 1975. At first, I didn’t believe the name of the conference was real and couldn’t stop laughing. But it is true, my mom attended the First Annual Great Mother Conference, which was created to explore how poetry, music, and dance could enhance human consciousness.

It took me weeks to realize that “Oh Dakini!” was written on the postcard because I had no idea what a Dakini was or why Ginsberg would write that to my mom. Eventually, she told me the story, and I wanted to write an essay about it.

When it comes to letters, the letter writer or their estate owns the copyright to the letter. This means that my mom could sell the Ginsberg postcard to an individual collector, but she could not quote it in a publication or exhibit it in a museum show. I contacted the Wylie Agency, which represents the Ginsberg estate, to find out how much it would cost to obtain a quote for one line on the postcard. The Wylie Agency said $200, and I sent off the check. I contacted Bly’s estate, and his family gave me permission to quote his letters. Another estate I contacted, which will remain unnamed, said they would sue me if I quoted even a single word from a letter, fair use be damned. And that was my entry into the world of letters and copyright law.

I am still waiting for the right time to tell the Dakini story.

News and Events:

I interviewed legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta for the summer print edition of Elle Magazine. In September, I will be in Italy for the Italian translation of Life and Death of the American Worker. And in October, I will attend one of my favorite gatherings of journalists from around the globe at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of There Is No Place For Us

Dolores Huerta turned 96 on a Friday. I interviewed her 24 hours into her 96th year, and she looked strong in body and spirit, her lips red. She told me she wanted to help save democracy and planned to go door-knocking to get out the vote. I felt emotional during the interview (did I cry?). Since then, I’ve thought about her every single day: my model for aging, for being, for moving through this life, is Dolores Huerta at 96.

You can read my profile of Dolores Huerta online in Elle Magazine or in the summer edition of the print magazine.

Upcoming events:

September: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

October 15: Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.

—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of There Is No Place For Us

Many congrats to Brian Goldstone on winning a Pulitzer Prize this week!!!!

EVENTS

Register for free and join me today at 6:30 pm EST for “Food Literacy for All,” hosted by the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. I will be back in my home state to participate in the ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas, on April 6. On April 13-14, I will be in NYC at the Local Journalists Workshop hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. And in September, I will be back in Italy for a book tour of the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan. The week of October 15, I will be in Mérida, Spain, at the Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

“Life and Death of the American Worker is not only a horror story of corporate negligence, but a deeply humane work about what we owe each other. How chilling it is to think that no one else but Driver could have written such a vital book.” - SLOANE CROSLEY, author of Grief is for People

Last week, my Italian editor sent me examples of potential book covers. I have to keep writing books so I can continue living my dream of having them translated into every language.

I love working as a translator and the relationships I have developed with writers. I began translating my first book, Abecedario de Juárez, in 2013 after meeting photojournalist Julián Cardona in Juárez, Mexico. At the time, the book had no publisher, and I agreed he could pay me for the translation work in the form of photos. In 2015, Julián wrote me an email updating me on some of the book chapters he would be sending me to translate:

la fábrica (or ladrillo, not sure yet of its title) - Aprox. 7,000 words, 25 pages.

Mexilio - Aprox. 10,000 words, 35 pages

desaparecida - Aprox. 10,000 words, 35 pages

PM - Aprox. 7,000 words, 25 pages.

No publisher yet.

Julián died suddenly before the book was published in 2022. I think of him often, of our long discussions about how to translate Mexican border slang, of the time we spent together in Juárez working on stories and drinking coffee at La Nueva Central. Here are the kinds of emails he would send me, notes on translations:

Estado paralelo is ready (9200 words). I hope it’s not a Gordian Knot.

P.S. Quitarse la muleta (casi al final) significa quitarse la responsabilidad.

I hope to translate more books and to work with more translators as they translate my books. I know AI is being sold as the future of all things, translation included, but I hold out hope for the humans, for the translators, for the writers.

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

March 24: “Food Literacy for All” at the University of Michigan

April 6: Featured speaker at ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas

April 13-14: Local Journalists Workshop hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in NYC

September: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

October 15: Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

"Life and Death of the American Worker is not only a horror story of corporate negligence, but a deeply humane work about what we owe each other. How chilling it is to think that no one else but Driver could have written such a vital book." - SLOANE CROSLEY, author of Grief is for People

I haven’t been writing the thing I am supposed to write. The draft has been sitting for months, lurking in my mind. It is like a mountain in the distance, and every day I wake up, look at it, and think it is impossible to climb. It’s strange because I’ve done the reporting, which was hard. I’m almost done, and yet I’m going nowhere. I know that I need to write what I have. And so here I am promising myself, while looking at the mountain in the distance, that I will continue to climb it.

Love,

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

March 24: “Food Literacy for All” at the University of Michigan

April 6: Featured speaker at ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas

April 13-14: Local Journalists Workshop hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in NYC

September: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

October 15: Congress of Mérida Migration Journalism: Migrant Children and Youth in Mérida, Spain

I returned from Art Week in Mexico City to find a handwritten letter from a painter. We met in Santa Fe at a reunion for the Yaddo Artist Retreat. I walked in to see him wearing a three-piece suit and a pocket square, and it turned out he was from Arkansas, too. Like me, he had run away from the state to make art.

Born in 1943 in rural Arkansas, he had always wanted to be a painter. I wrote him a letter on a piece of paper torn from a notebook, telling him that I felt too weary to write. He wrote me on beautifully textured stationery in looping cursive, reminding me to be kind to myself and to pace myself. “Pace yourself, you have a lot of life ahead of you in which to write. After 54 years as a painter, it was the intentional pacing and pacing that kept me going - You are fine!”

To the infinite tenderness and humanity found in letters,

Alice

News & Events

LitHub included my book alongside others like Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward in “11 Books That Confront and Interrogate the Violence of a Class Society”

March 24: “Food Literacy for All” at the University of Michigan

April 6: Featured speaker at ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas

June: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

October 16-18: Guest Speaker at the Arkansas Library Association Annual Conference in Hot Springs, Arkansas

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.
—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, author of There Is No Place For Us

I am nostalgic for the days of letter writing. To know someone through letters is a tender, surprising, intimate knowing.

I have spent the past several years visiting the New York City Public Library archives while working on a project about writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak.

Read more

1. Sold plasma

2. Worked at a coffee shop (favorite client, bell hooks)

3. Waitressed at a BBQ joint (one client did find a bullet in his burgoo)

4. Lived in the woods in a cabin with an outhouse

5. Got a Ph.D. in Latin American literature

6. Completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

7. Sold my first freelance article for $25

8. Published my first book

9. Worked as a translator of movie subtitles, books, and reports

10. Trained as a TV reporter (the woman in charge of the training told me that I looked drunk when I laughed)

11. Wrote bilingual scripts for a video production team

12. Translated my first book

13. Traveled the US-Mexico border working as a fixer for a Neorealist painter

14. Taught workshops in El Salvador with local journalists on how to cover gender-based violence

15. Sold my second book

To this one wild creative life,

Alice

2026 Speaking Engagements

March 24: “Food Literacy for All” at the University of Michigan

April 6: Featured speaker at ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas

Summer 2026: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America’s most vulnerable workers. It’s hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.
—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, author of There Is No Place For Us

1. “My lunch was delicious - even off the floor” - Tien, when faced with a choice after spilling food on the floor

2. The chainsaw sculptor I met, who burnishes her art with a blow torch

3. “Maximum fun!" - Ceci on her plans for 2026

4. Receiving a business card of handmade paper with only the artist’s name on it (oh, the texture of that paper and the mystery of no contact information!)

5. “My tío Pepe, he was not a good person.” - Gabriel sharing his dreams as poetic as they come

6. “She was exiled to Texas after she ran over that man.” - my mom telling an Arkansas story

7. “Think about what a rare butterfly you are” - Justin

8. The doctor who cleaned out my ears (a unique experience I would recommend to everyone)

9. “Terminan como el perro de las dos tortas” - un dicho mexicano

10. The art critic who told her children that when she could no longer read, she would be ready to die.

11. “Creativity is born in the boring spaces in between” - Paul

12. "you said his fingernails was made out of water moccasin bones" - poet Frank Stanford (this one line is always running through my mind)

To sharing dreams, telling stories and reading poetry,

Alice

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

An extraordinary feat of reporting—a gripping investigation into the brutal, often life-threatening conditions faced by America's most vulnerable workers. It's hard to imagine a more urgent or timely book, one written with rigor, deep compassion, and moral clarity. A vital, infuriating book - an absolute must-read.
—BRIAN GOLDSTONE, author of There Is No Place For Us

I’m often thinking about writing and good places to write.

I finished my last book at Yaddo, where I lived in Truman Capote’s room for six weeks. While there, I went on long runs and would often find painter Drea Cofield in the forest at her easel. I love feeling connected to the writers and artists who have come before me, sharing the same physical space. At most residencies, there is a wall in the room where you stay where you sign your name, and you can read the names of everyone else who has stayed there.

I didn’t know much about artists’ residencies before I got an agent and sold my book. I applied only to fully funded residencies. There are many that you can attend if you are willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. I enjoyed the application process because, for the most part, the residencies ask you to submit pages of your book manuscript.

Being surrounded by other writers, dancers, visual artists, and musicians who are working on long-term projects made me feel seen, understood and inspired.

These are the residencies I attended while working on my last book:

Mesa Refuge

Jentel Artist Residency

Bellagio Center

The Logan Nonfiction Program

Here are some residencies that are on my radar

The Arctic Circle Residency

Casa Ecco

Dora Maar House

To doing the work, the things that make us feel really alive,

Alice

2026 Speaking Engagements

March 24: “Food Literacy for All” at the University of Michigan

April 6: Featured speaker at ArkaText Festival - Film, Theater, and Creative Writing in Conway, Arkansas

Summer 2026: Book tour for the Italian edition of Life and Death of the American Worker in Milan, Italy

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

“The workers who feed us are some of America’s poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book.” - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Follow me on Instagram @alice__driver

I was tearing the pages out of an old notebook when I came across this list of story ideas. It reminded me of a time when I pitched an editor a story about men in Mexico who keep pet tigers. Ok, the pitch might have been titled “The Tiger Men.” The editor, a man, wrote back, “It feels a bit small and offbeat, even though you mean to get at some larger issues.” The thing is, I don't mind small, offbeat story ideas. I think it is important, in fact, to have those ideas and let them simmer. From the list of ideas above, the only story I published was about my dad’s tomb. The “cult Jesus outer space” idea is related to something I discovered in Arkansas, and I still want to pursue it. If my next book is about a cult, don’t be surprised.

To small, offbeat story ideas,

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

Annie Correal of the New York Times interviewed me for “Mexico’s President Presses Charges Against Man Who Groped Her on the Street.”

Abi Wright, the Executive Director of Columbia Journalism School’s professional prizes department, and Lisa R. Cohen, the Director of Prizes administering the duPont-Columbia Awards, interviewed me for the On Assignment podcast.

I played a small role in editing Janet Jarman's photo book Birth Wars. “Birth Wars: In Search of Dignity” is a visual narrative about the pursuit of dignified childbirth with quality care. Through her lens, Janet Jarman brings us closer to a problem that faces women in many countries around the world. You can order it from FotoEvidence here.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

“The workers who feed us are some of America’s poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book.” - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Follow me on Instagram @alice__driver

I received this postcard from myself this week. I wrote it when I was at the Bellagio Center in Italy last March. I wanted to remind myself to stay calm, which, frankly, is hard these days. If I’ve got one thing going for me in my creative work, it's this wild feeling that I must find more time to write.

Either I have time or I have money, but I rarely have both. That seems to be the way of the creative life, and so I’ve had to become less precious about my work. I write when I can, early mornings, waking up at 5 am to have some time before I teach.

Last week, I filmed interviews for a forthcoming documentary. It will be streaming in spring 2026. The night before the interviews, I had a nightmare that I was climbing down a skyscraper made of haybales, and another woman was below me. A giant poisonous snake’s head fell from the sky, and I tried to warn the woman below me. When she saw it, she got so scared she fell off the tower and into an abyss. I wanted to call 911, but I didn’t have my phone. I continued climbing down.

Despite the nightmare, I felt relaxed in the interviews. My goal on camera is to feel like myself, at ease.

To being at ease with yourself and writing yourself a postcard,

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

I'm on the latest episode of the “What You’re Eating Podcast” talking about chicken.

You can order LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

“The workers who feed us are some of America’s poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book.” - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Follow me on Instagram @alice__driver

This week, I edited a grant application for a friend, a wildly talented photographer. Like many photographers, this friend gets intimidated by writing and waits until the last minute to do it.

I love writing grants because I view them as an opportunity to present my vision for an artistic project. Here is the advice I gave to the photographer:

• Do not take up any space stating what you are not doing or what you are fighting against.

• If you have 1,000 words, use them to frame your unique vision and body of work.

• Include quotes, interviews, and descriptions that are unique to you and your project.

• My goal is always to write a project description that nobody else on earth could or would write.

• Your first sentence and paragraph should draw people in and make them dream about your project. In other words, avoid a first paragraph that is formulaic.

• Have a trusted friend or two edit your grant application and provide feedback. It is easy to become immersed in a long-term project and lose your ability to view your own work with fresh eyes.

• Apply multiple times for the same grant. The first time, you might not even be a finalist, but the second time around, you could win it.

• If you win a grant, you may be asked to serve as a judge for that grant in the future.

• Grants are one of the few ways to fund long-term creative projects.

• This is your opportunity to get your photography or writing in front of some of the best creative minds. You never know who the judges are. Even if you don’t win an award the first time around, judges remember good work. I know this because I am now a judge.

Onward,

Alice

In honor of the first birthday of my book and the release of the paperback, I’m sharing some of the quotes I keep in my notebooks:

“Keep a disciplined practice: if not an hour each day for writing, then certain days: Wednesday and Saturday, for instance, just for your writing.” - writer Amitava Kumar

“If you are already keeping things from yourself, it is not going to be as good of a book.” - writer Sloane Crosley

“We have little time on earth and a tiny bit of energy to do it, let’s not waste it on marketing.” - writer Yuri Herrera

“The most beautiful women in the world - who cares? I just want water and no war.” - filmmaker Laura Hueratas Millán

“El camino está muy lleno de culpas”. - journalist Marcela Turati

“I might not have a certain look anymore, but I can feel my innate powers.” - singer, songwriter & poet, Patti Smith, when I saw her speak at the Miami Book Fair

“A truth in waiting was always a truth to begin with.” - photographer Tomás Ayuso

“I begin with the typewriter.” - writer Mario Bellatin when I interviewed him at his home in 2024

“Lord, if I can only soak my head in work I’d be fine.” - illustrator and author Maurice Sendak

Love,

Alice

You can pre-order the paperback of LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

“The workers who feed us are some of America’s poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book.” - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Tomorrow I fly to NYC to participate in a reading with Pulitzer Prize-winner Mosab Abu Toha and Windham Campbell Prize-winner Alexis Pauline Gumbs at The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Reading & Panel. On Saturday, I will do a live in-studio interview with a national TV network. I love public speaking and, over the years, have taken several media training courses. At one point in my freelance career, I even began to train as an on-camera TV broadcaster with a network that planned to open a bureau in Mexico City. Here is some of the most helpful advice I’ve received in funded media trainings (often with individuals who charge clients anywhere from $500-$1500 an hour).

Recipe: keep the same narrative arc, but shrink it down

· I can’t give you all the details. I will say X

· Be judicious and leave some details on the cutting room floor

· Add something the interviewer isn’t expecting

· Have 4-5 stories of 45 secs prepared

2 Major rules

1. Tell the great stories

2. Don’t waste time

3 Things Audiences Love

1. A good story

2. What did my part of the story feel like?

3. My challenge: how to tell a story in 45 seconds

As one speechwriter who worked with Michell Obama reminded me, lead with curiosity!

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

I am now the Journalist-in-Residence at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University.

Sept. 19: I will be reading with Pulitzer Prize-winner Mosab Abu Toha and Windham Campbell Prize-winner Alexis Pauline Gumbs at The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Reading & Panel. The event is free and open to the public. You can register HERE.

Sept. 20: Live national TV interview in NYC

On September 23 at 11 a.m. EST, Alicia Kennedy will host an event via Zoom to celebrate the paperback release of my book, "Life and Death of the American Worker." I will be in conversation with journalist Melissa Montalvo, who also covers issues related to the meatpacking industry. You can register HERE.

You can pre-order the paperback of LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

"The workers who feed us are some of America's poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book." - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Follow me on Instagram @alice__driver

I’m a long-time reader of food and culture writer Alicia Kennedy’s newsletter (and I quote her in my book). In a world where it is hard to build any successful model for writing (and by success, in the most basic sense, I mean having time to write), she had done that. In the process, she has built a vibrant community and shared her knowledge, path, and process.

On September 23 at 11 a.m. EST, Alicia will host an event via Zoom to celebrate the paperback release of my book, "Life and Death of the American Worker." I will be in conversation with journalist Melissa Montalvo, who also covers issues related to the meatpacking industry. You can register HERE.

Those of us who want to write spend a lifetime figuring out how to make it work financially. It is a constant negotiation in which one either has little time or little money.

To having time to write,

Alice

PERSONAL NEWS AND EVENTS

I am now the Journalist-in-Residence at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University.

Sept. 19: I will be reading with Pulitzer Prize-winner Mosab Abu Toha and Windham Campbell Prize-winner Alexis Pauline Gumbs at The Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Shortlist Reading & Panel. The event is free and open to the public. You can register HERE.

You can pre-order the paperback of LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company HERE.

"The workers who feed us are some of America's poorest and most exploited workers. Alice Driver tells their stories with enormous compassion and grace. This is a fearless, wonderful book." - Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation

Follow me on Instagram @alice__driver