NONFICTION | AVAILABLE NOW
WITHOUT EXCEPTION: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom
by PAM HOUSTON
“A story told with unflinching honesty.”
—CAMILLE T. DUNGY, Soil
Without Exception is a call for freedom by way of abortion rights.
With equal parts candor and lyricism, Pam Houston illuminates the interconnected histories of abortion in the United States and in her own life during the decades when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Houston guides us through the shifting landscapes of politics, the law, and self-determination in a country where access to medical care and the power to determine your own destiny are increasingly—and once again—dependent on geography and circumstance.
September 2024 | Nonfiction | Trade Paper Original ISBN 9798890920003 | 176 pp | $15.95
“The mix of the personal and the political is where Without Exception truly shines, as Houston writes with candor and urgency about her experience of abuse, abortion, and the freedom to choose her own path in life. A personal reckoning that lays bare the heart of the fight for reproductive justice, and an urgent and heartfelt reminder to give and receive love and mercy to each other—and to ourselves.”
—SHELF AWARENESS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAM HOUSTON is the author of Air Mail, Deep Creek, Contents May Have Shifted, and Cowboys Are My Weakness among others. Houston teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing MFA program, is a Professor of English at UC Davis, and cofounder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers. She lives at nine thousand feet above sea level near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.
ALSO BY THE AUTHOR
AIR MAIL: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place
When the state of Colorado ordered its residents to shelter in place in response to the spread of coronavirus, writers Pam Houston and Amy Irvine—who had never met—began a correspondence based on their shared devotion to the rugged, windswept mountains that surround their homes, one on either side of the Continental Divide. As the numbers of infected and dead rose and the nation split dangerously over the crisis, Houston and Irvine found their letters to one another as necessary as breath. Part tribute to wilderness, part indictment against tyranny and greed, Air Mail: Letters of Politics, Pandemics, and Place reveals the evolution of a friendship that galvanizes as it chronicles a strange new world.
“An affecting collection of candid, heartfelt letters that stands as a testimony to the sustenance of friendship in frightening times.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
PRAISE FOR WITHOUT EXCEPTION
“A timeless story of self-determination inextricably intertwined with a political moment in time.”
—SHELF AWARENESS
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“With recurring themes of safety, freedom, and the lack thereof, Houston captures the
urgency of our current moment in a country that is growing increasingly hostile to the rights of
women and other traditionally marginalized groups.”
—BOOKLIST
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“A story told with unflinching honesty. I thank Pam Houston for this timely and timeless book.”
—CAMILLE T. DUNGY, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
“Houston has written this book with a demotic unpretentiousness and an irreducible clarity that can only come with having walked the walk, spending years doing the kind of quiet behind-the-scenes lifework that matures the spirit. Houston says ugly truths she doesn’t need to say, things no one would fault her for leaving out, because she knows there’s a reader somewhere who will find the world more hospitable for having read them. To me, that's rigor. That’s love.”
—KAVEH AKBAR, Martyr!
“Tender and ferocious, Houston weaves a deeply human story about what it means and what it takes—for women, for all of us—to be free.”
—NINA SIMON, Mother Daughter Murder Night
“A full-throated, unapologetic anthem bringing reproductive rights into galactic song. This is a body story from the inside out told with eloquence, immediacy, rage, and courage. Houston's writing is vivid and clear and filled with wisdom.”
—LIDIA YUKNAVITCH, Thrust
“One of the most urgent texts of our time, Without Exception is not only for fertile people in the United States but for everyone who understands that full humanity is inextricable from bodily autonomy. Houston cuts through political doublespeak that upholds patriarchy and white supremacy, forging connections between abuses against vulnerable bodies and the annihilation of our planet, yet somehow never fails to leave room for the radical, wild joy of what is possible when we refuse to be silenced.”
—GINA FRANGELLO, Blow Your House Down
“Houston writes about difficult and beautiful things with a kind of precision and lyricism that few writers can achieve. She has written an important book, a powerful book, one that challenges the way we think about choices, compassion, and resilience.”
—BRANDON HOBSON, The Removed
“Deeply personal, taboo-busting, Without Exception argues that abortion is a basic health right, motherhood is a choice, and we need to fight like hell for the freedom to make these decisions.”
—JULIE BUCKLES, Honest Dog Books
“A miracle, a revelation, a revolution on the page. Houston tells the stories that every woman, and girl, and citizen of the earth, needs to hear. A ruthless, tender, urgent dispatch that travels to the heart of our struggle as a species. It will leave you transformed, inspired, braver than you were before.”
—STEVE ALMOND, All the Secrets of the World
“Without Exception arrived precisely at the moment when we needed to hear the message that Houston has dedicated her brave life to crafting.”
—FENTON JOHNSON, Keeping Faith
