# Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia - Hardcover

by **Adrian Shirk** (Author)

**An exploration of American ideas of utopia through the lens of one millennial's quest to live a more communal life under late-stage capitalism**

Told in a series of essays that balance memoir with fieldwork, _Heaven Is a Place on Earth_ is an idiosyncratic study of American utopian experiments--from the Shakers to the radical faerie communes of Short Mountain to the Bronx rebuilding movement--through the lens of one woman's quest to create a more communal life in a time of unending economic and social precarity.

When Adrian Shirk's father-in-law has a stroke and loses his ability to speak and walk, she and her husband--both adjuncts in their midtwenties--become his primary caretakers. The stress of these new responsibilities, coupled with navigating America's broken health-care system and ordinary twenty-first-century financial insecurity, propels Shirk into an odyssey through the history and present of American utopian experiments in the hope that they might offer a way forward.

Along the way, Shirk seeks solace in her own community of friends, artists, and theologians. They try to imagine a different kind of life, examining what might be replicable within the histories of utopia-making, and what might be doomed. Rather than "no place," Shirk reframes utopia as something that, according to the laws of capital and conquest, shouldn't be able to exist--but does anyway, if only for a moment.

### Author Biography

**ADRIAN SHIRK** is an essayist and memoirist. She is the author of _And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy_, named an NPR Best Book of 2017. Shirk was raised in Portland, Oregon, and has since lived in New York and Wyoming. She is a frequent contributor to _Catapult_, and her essays have appeared in _The Atlantic_ and _Atlas Obscura_, among other publications. Currently, she teaches in Pratt Institute's BFA creative writing program and lives at the Mutual Aid Society in the Catskill Mountains.

**Number of Pages:** 352

**Dimensions:** 1.2 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN

**Publication Date:** March 15, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 26.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 26.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia - Hardcover

---

> Source: [Smart supply deals](https://smartsupplydeals.com/products/heaven-is-a-place-on-earth-searching-for-an-american-utopia-hardcover)
> Updated: 2026-07-23