sarah rose etter

We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase “Did you see?” The feeling that we’re living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten — and each new catastrophe distracts us from the last. The Unreality of Memory (FSG) collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In her new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end — if indeed it…