Selected Misdemeanors - by Sue William Silverman (Paperback)

About the Book

The essays in Selected Misdemeanors range from short to flash to micro length, focusing on pivotal, often fleeting moments that define the course of a life.

Book Synopsis

Longlisted for the 2026 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

The essays in Selected Misdemeanors are unapologetic word grenades lobbed into an otherwise complacent forgetfulness. Throughout the collection, Sue William Silverman focuses on pivotal, often fleeting moments that defined the course of her life, such as a fraught family vacation; an evening watching the Chippendale dancers' extravaganza; a Pac-Man-and-whisky-fueled rumination on failed relationships; and the way melodramatic movies such as Rome Adventure shape an adolescent's idea of love. Ranging from short to flash to micro length, these emotionally courageous writings imbue minimalist forms with maximalist emotions and an unrepentant, no-holds-barred attitude. Each action explored in this collection produces the Butterfly Effect--seemingly quotidian events rippling into emotional tsunamis.

Review Quotes

"Selected Misdemeanors invites us to do what often feels impossible--to reframe difficult memories, not as good or bad, but as glimpses into a larger whole. Silverman does this with eloquence, reminding us that we can own our stories and meet our past selves with empathy."--Aurora Bonner, Center for Literary Publishing

"These stories take a nonlinear path that makes the memoir so authentic and resonant as well as showing us that real growth is messy."--booksthatmakeyou.com

"A master essayist, Sue William Silverman harnesses all at her disposal--poetry, photographs, film, and, most of all, her luminous and lyrical prose--to resurrect memory and interrogate loneliness, longing, and loss. The result is a full-throated, gorgeous, multi-layered meditation on obsession and desire. The heat rises off the page."--Sonja Livingston, author of Ghostbread

"The quality of Sue William Silverman's seeing, the angle of her gaze, and the way she builds a frame for readers to view our own tragic, complicated, beautiful lives make this collection distinctive. Throughout, I am struck by the way Silverman folds time, navigating the rich span of her years on this planet to locate vital patterns and connections. These essays contain such wisdom about the making of a life. . . . Silverman is a national treasure."--Jill Christman, author of If This Were Fiction

"Sue William Silverman refreshes the idea that insight is best found in the granules. From piece to piece this book constructs a constellation of wonder, each point of light written with resilience, wit, heartbreak, and a stunning forthrightness."--Paul Lisicky, author of Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell

About the Author

Sue William Silverman is an award-winning memoirist, essayist, and poet of eight previous books, including How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences (Nebraska, 2020) and Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul (Nebraska, 2024). She is co-chair of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.