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Item Information
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 6 x 9, 391 pages
ISBN: 9781931498883
Old ISBN: 1-931498-88-1
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Release Date: 2005-07-25
An Unreasonable Woman
A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas
Diane Wilson; Foreword by Kenny AusubelThis item is available in the following formats:
- Hardcover (You are currently viewing this edition)
- Paperback
Diane Wilson receives
"Blue Planet Award" in Berlin
"For the American environmental movement, An Unreasonable Woman could not come at a better time. Citizens across the political spectrum are growing alarmed at the Bush administration's rollback of protective legislation for water, air and national parks. This book does for environmentalism what All the President's Men did for government reform. Watch for the movie."
—San Diego Union-Tribune
Portrait by Robert Shetterly, from his portrait series Americans Who Tell the Truth
When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she decides to fight back. She launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast.
In an epic tale of bravery, Wilson takes her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way she meets with scorn, bribery, character assassination, and death threats. Finally Wilson realizes that she must break the law to win justice: She resorts to nonviolent disobedience, direct action, and hunger strikes.
Wilson’s vivid South Texas dialogue resides somewhere between Alice Walker and William Faulkner, and her dazzling prose brings to mind the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with dreams and prophecies.
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation shrimper, began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By twenty-four she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Diane insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Her work on behalf of the people and aquatic life of Seadrift, Texas, has won her a number of awards including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, and the Bioneers Award. She is co-founder of Code Pink and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
An Unreasonable Woman is Diane's first book.
Diane's Peace Activism
Diane's Hunger
Strike Podcasts
After 28 days of fasting, Diane Wilson and other anti-war hunger strikers received a breakthrough victory for their sacrifice: Leading members of the Iraqi Parliament invited fasters to join them to discuss their plans for peace in Iraq. On Wednesday, August 2, hunger strikers traveled to Amman, Jordan, to meet with these Iraqi MPs and break their fast.
Pictures, Blog Posts, and New Articles
Where the Bombs Fell, by Diane Wilson
From Beirut, by Diane Wilson
The Road to Beirut, by Diane Wilson
Iraq Is Dying by Tom Hayden, member of the delegation to Jordan
Meeting with the MPs, by Diane Wilson
Fasters to Meet with Iraqi Parliament
Why I Am Fasting, by Diane Wilson
An Interview with Diane Wilson
Molly Bang tells Diane's story in graphic novel
Acclaimed graphic artist Molly Bang brings Diane Wilson's story to life in striking pictures. A vivid companion to An Unreasonable Woman
Nobody Particular is the true story of Diane’s fight. It is the story of how one woman—who was, as she says, “nobody particular”—succeeded in forcing a huge corporation to change its plans, adopt more environmental safeguards, and agree to protect her precious bays.About the Author
Award-winning artist and author Molly Bang has
written and illustrated more than twenty books for young people, including
Common Ground: The Water, Earth, and Air We Share, winner of the Giverny
Prize for Best Children's Science Picture Book. She and her husband
split their time between Falmouth, Massachusetts, and San Francisco,
California.
Read Molly Bang's piece "Why Is This Patriot in Jail" about Diane's current jail term.
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"Hip to the fact that well-behaved women rarely make history, Diane has already inspired a new movement of totally uncontrollable, irresistible and unreasonable women!”
—Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK and coauthor of Stop the Next War Now
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CODEPINK has been a source of strength and support for Diane Wilson since she helped found it. A women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement, CODEPINK seeks positive social change through proactive, creative protest and nonviolent direct action. Diane has an essay titled "The Art of Misbehavin'" in CODEPINK's book Stop the Next War Now.