Reporter, author Potts to hold reading at Little Rock bookstore

Arkansas native Monica Potts will discuss her upcoming debut memoir, “The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America,” with Karen Martin, Perspective section senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, June 5, 2023 at Wordsworth Books in Little Rock.

Growing up in Clinton, Potts and her best friend Darci bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their tumultuous family lives and declining town. They pored over the giant map in their middle-school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Potts left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not. Pott’s book explores the choices that sent them on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited.

Potts is a senior politics reporter for the website FiveThirtyEight. Her previous work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Republic, and on NPR. She was a 2015-16 New America Fellow and is a former senior writer with The American Prospect. “The Forgotten Girls” is her first book. A book signing will follow the discussion. RSVP for the event by emailing lynne@wordsworthbooks.com.