Paul Loeb

How do we maintain hope in these days of a relentless news cycle? How do people, especially those working to make the world a better place, keep going? Through his book, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, author Paul Loeb would like to offer courage and inspiration to the work of social change.

Seattle writer Loeb has researched the global history of what it’s like to go up against Goliath and win, including the 2024 South Korean coup, Putin’s prisons, South African apartheid, slavery in the United States, and defeatism about climate change. Loeb draws from his own years of engagement and his anthology of stories, essays, and poems, which includes work from familiar names like Nelson Mandela, Alexei Navalny, Heather Cox Richardson, Andrea Gibson, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda, Terry Tempest Williams, Desmond Tutu, and over 50 other world-renowned writers. These are the voices of courage and inspiration about how people changed history despite daunting odds — the voices that Loeb believes create a powerful antidote to today’s challenges.