Kim Kelly
“There’s always been someone, some group of workers who have been thought to be unorganizable, or not deserving, or somehow not in need of union protections because they don’t fit this specific avatar of what a quote-unquote union member should look like. And that’s always been bullshit because, look at my book, there are like 300 million pages of people that don’t fit that description but changed the world.”
“Kim Kelly’s debut is a knockout... Catalyzed by a passionate voice and brisk pacing, Fight Like Hell will leave you with a renewed sense of readiness in your bones.”
“A rousing look at the contributions of marginalized groups to the U.S. labor movement [and] a powerful call for today’s workers to fight for their rights.”
“Kelly unearths the stories of the people—farm laborers, domestic workers, factory employees—behind some of the labor movement’s biggest successes.”
Kim Kelly is a labor reporter and the author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold Story of American Labor (Simon & Schuster, 2023), which Booklist called “an excellent entry point for a new understanding of work in America.” Her next book is Fight to Win: Heroes of American Labor (Simon & Schuster, May 2025), an adaptation of Fight Like Hell for Young Adult readers. She is currently at work on her third, Exquisite Strangers, a political and cultural history of disabled performers in the American sideshow.
She’s a contributor to In These Times magazine and has been a regular labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018. Her writing on labor, class, politics, disability, and culture has appeared in The Nation, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and many others. Kelly has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network, and Means TV. Previously, she was the heavy metal editor at Noisey, Vice’s music vertical, and helped organize the Vice union. A third-generation union member, she served three terms as an elected councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East Council.
In an interview with Vogue, she explained the importance of Fight Like Hell's intersectional focus: “Seeing the way that these different movements came together and helped one another out is a real lesson in solidarity; none of us is an island, and every labor story is also a disability story, a queer story, a Black story, a women’s story. We’re all in this together because ultimately everyone either is a worker or was a worker or will be a worker at some point in their life. There have been efforts over the decades and centuries to separate workers on the basis of race, gender, nationality, or ability, and that’s always been bullshit. It’s just a boss’s tactic to keep us apart because when we come together, we’re strong."
She was born in the heart of the South Jersey Pine Barrens and currently lives in Philadelphia with a hard-workin’ man, a couple of taxidermy bears, and way too many books.
Open and right-click to download
© Liz Kross
Book Jacket
