What Debt Demands - by Kristin Collier (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A powerful memoir of a woman plunged into fraudulent debt that explores America's broken student loan system and illuminates the ways that debt shapes every aspect of our lives.

At 22 years old, Kristin Collier was on the verge of college graduation, applying for a credit card to cover expenses before her teaching career began. She handed the banker her social security number and birthdate, excited to embark on her adult life. But the man returned, unsmiling and holding a lengthy copy of her credit report. He told her in no uncertain terms that she didn't qualify for even the lowest line of credit. In fact, she had a shocking amount of debt already: a handful of credit card debts and dozens of private student loans, which she'd known nothing about. In total, she owed over $200,000. How could this have happened? She struggled to breathe.

WHAT DEBT DEMANDS is a nuanced and poignant meditation on indebtedness and its consequences. Kristin paints a vivid portrait of her own experience with personal debt, navigating the complex student lending system alongside her evolving relationship with the person who stole from her, a family member she loved and trusted. Weaving in interviews with student borrowers, historical analysis, cultural critique, and research into the higher education system, she reveals debt's profound impact on every aspect of our lives, our relationships, and our world. As Kristin explores how and why our nation arrived here and what it will take to heal her own financial and familial wounds, WHAT DEBT DEMANDS illuminates the unjust world that already exists and points to a better one: a world where all students, regardless of race or wealth, can access free education. And one in which we are not bound to the state but to each other.

Review Quotes

"What Debt Demands is an exceptional account of American borrowing. Collier's memoir of her own life and debt, much of which was obtained by her mother fraudulently in her name, is akin to existentialist literature, absorbing and dark. Her societal analysis is rigorous, as is her forceful reframing of debt, including how it is often created by the best things we do, like caregiving for our loved ones or mutual aid. Reading it will change how you understand what we owe."

--Alissa Quart, author of Bootstrapped and Squeezed, Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

About the Author

Kristin Collier is a graduate of the University of Minnesota MFA program. She has been a recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board funding and a Yaddo artist residency. Her writing has been published with Fourth Genre and Longreads and was recently anthologized in Coffee House Press's American Precariat. She is an organizer and high school English teacher, living in Minneapolis.