Welcome to Debt Ridden

A new collection about living in the red

It’s the story of our time: debt. The Great Recession put millions of homes into foreclosure. Student loans now total nearly $1 trillion. The average household holds over $15,000 in credit card debt.

Debt Ridden is all about, well, debt: how you acquire it, live with it, get rid of it. We’ll seed the collection with stories about being in debt across the generations—from late teens to retirement and beyond—and we’ll seek to uncover the similarities and differences between those experiences.

First up is an essay by Emily Gould from Chad Harbach’s forthcoming anthology, MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction. In Gould’s piece, a hefty book deal won in her twenties has not given her the financial security she desired — or expected.

Next, we’ll publish a piece by a writer who accrued $124,421 in student loans in order to attend a four-year private college — all the while wondering if the trade-off was worth it.

Of course, debt impacts everyone —not just writers!—from blue-collar workers to artists to teachers to accountants. We hope that these stories intrigue and inspire you—perhaps to tell your own tale here.