Republic of Outsiders is a look at the growing number of American outsiders who disrupt the status quo: the outcasts who seek to redefine a wide variety of fields, from film and mental health to music and gender. These people range from professional and amateur filmmakers crowd-sourcing their work, to transgender and autistic activists, and Occupy Wall Street's 'alternative bankers'. They are the groups that have forged a new cultural practice Quart dubs 'identity innovation'; pushing the boundaries of who are they are and what they can achieve.

Author Biography

Alissa Quart is the author of Branded and Hothouse Kids. She has written features and opinion pieces for the New York Times, The Atlantic, O Magazine, The Nation, and many other publications. Her poetry has appeared in the London Review of Books and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.