Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning

by Sarah Weinman, Rabia Chaudry (Foreword by)

Overview

From Sarah Weinman, the award-winning editor of Unspeakable Acts, a groundbreaking new anthology showcasing the future of the true crime genre

True crime, as an entertainment genre, has always prioritized clear narrative arcs: victims wronged, police detectives in pursuit, suspects apprehended, justice delivered. But what stories have been ignored?

In Evidence of Things Seen, fourteen of the most innovative crime writers working today cast a light on the cases that give crucial insight into our society. Wesley Lowery writes about a lynching left unsolved for decades by an indifferent police force and a family’s quest for answers. Justine van der Leun reports on the thousands of women in prison for defending themselves from abuse. May Jeong reveals how the Atlanta spa shootings tell a story of America.

Edited by acclaimed writer Sarah Weinman, and with an introduction by attorney and host of the Undisclosed podcast Rabia Chaudry, this anthology pulls back the curtain on how crime itself is a by-product of America’s systemic harms and inequalities. And in doing so, it reveals how the genre of true crime can be a catalyst for social change. These works combine brilliant storytelling with incisive cultural examinations—and challenge each of us to ask what justice should look like. Evidence of Things Seen introduces the new classics of true crime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063233928
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/04/2023
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sarah Weinman is the author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita and, most recently, is the editor of Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning. She was a 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for reporting and a Calderwood Journalism Fellow at MacDowell, and her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Esquire, and New York magazine. Weinman is the Crime & Mystery columnist for the New York Times Book Review and lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

2023-03-28
A collection of previously published essays on crime.

Weinman—a crime writer and the editor of a previous anthology, Unspeakable Acts—compiles some of the past few years’ best reporting on crime and crime media, previously published in outlets including Vice and the Atlantic. Some of the essays offer explicit critiques of crime discourses (both true and fictional), from a True Crime Junkies Facebook group to The Wire. Others use the format to tell underreported stories. In an exemplary piece, Justine van der Leun employs both data and human-focused storytelling to reveal the pipeline that pushes women from poverty and childhood abuse to sex work, violence, and prison, often as punishment for “acts of survival” or self-defense. Many essays are well worth reading, but most of them have been widely circulated already, so readers may wonder about the purpose in reprinting them. Both Rabia Chaudry’s introduction and Weinman’s editor’s note make claims about true crime—a phrase that generally conjures murder-mystery podcasts and serial-killer documentaries—without defining it or distinguishing between the genre of voyeuristic entertainment and the systems-focused crime writing that comprises the volume. Chaudry confusingly writes that the recent rise in public consciousness about the injustices of policing and criminal-legal systems can “nearly all…be attributed to true crime media.” However, as some contributors note, sensationalized crime stories can do as much harm as rigorous ones do good. The middle section of the book contains critiques of popular crime media, which Amanda Knox, in a chapter rebuking her own story’s relentless misrepresentation in the media, calls “a voracious content mill.” Weinman sought “to hold the true crime genre to higher ethical standards,” but most of these essays surmount the genre altogether. Other contributors include Wesley Lowery, May Jeong, and Diana Moskovitz.

An up-and-down anthology of important perspectives on injustice within the legal system and crime media alike.

Kirkus Reviews

This is a book about finding justice in a system that can frequently be unjust. These are stories about inequality, victims who must fight to be heard, and the tendency of the legal system to marginalize, or ignore, entire groups of people. . . . A valuable addition to the ever-growing genre of crime nonfiction.” — Booklist

"You know the feeling that you’ve heard the news even if you haven’t? “Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning” (July 4) is an addicting anthology of reporting that reframes crime writing itself, from pieces on the real-life models for David Simon’s fictional police, decades-old murders facing charges of indifference to Amanda Knox on “Amanda Knox” the image. (Editor Sarah Weinman has become a seal of excellence for true crime.) " — Chicago Tribune

 “Evidence of Things Seen is a healthy antidote to ‘Dateline’-style sensationalist programming. The essays avoid traditional black-and-white stories and instead embrace the nuance of reporting on crime, showing the ways stories of wrongdoing often illuminate broader issues in our society. . . . The questions this book raises are critical and timely, and I look forward to seeing what these writers ask next.”
— Washington Post

"Evidence of Things Seen is an excellent and important collection that shines a light on the complicated obsession [of true crime]. — Shondaland

“A powerful anthology that illustrates how true-crime stories can, in fact, expose injustice and bring about social change.” — AirMail

From the Publisher