I Am Not Your Enemy

“Reality Winner is, without a doubt, a hero for these times. When it mattered the most, she chose truth over deception—and paid a terrible price. Read her story and let it move you, infuriate you, and inspire you.”—Chelsea Handler, New York Times bestselling author of Life Will Be the Death of Me

“In her provocative and engrossing memoir, I Am Not Your Enemy, young military veteran and whistleblower Reality Winner recounts her impulsive choice to leak to the press a NSA document detailing Russian interference in the 2016 election for U.S. President, and the harrowing consequences of that ill-considered act of naïve patriotism. Reality Winner’s Kafkaesque journey through American courtrooms, jails and prisons reveals the plight of whistleblowers under draconian laws and a conspiracy of silence in the face of injustice. I Am Not Your Enemy offers a unique and urgent story of what happened to a young woman who spoke out against the power of the state, and her unforgettable journey to rock-bottom in prison during the COVID pandemic, and back home to Texas to regain her life.”—Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black 

“A brilliant and excruciatingly necessary book for the moment we are in. Because the only way we are going to survive this current madness is for all of us to find the courage that Reality has shown us and act accordingly. Her only crime was that she learned we were being lied to and she decided that we, the citizens, should know the truth. That she was sent to prison for this is one of the most shameful acts I have seen in my lifetime. When you finish reading her amazing and inspiring story, you too will know the truth of this book’s title: Far from her having to proclaim ‘I Am Not Your Enemy,’ we now know she is exactly the opposite of an ‘enemy’—that she is, quite frankly, the American hero we’ve been waiting for.”—Michael Moore, Academy Award–winning filmmaker and bestselling author

“Reading Reality Winner’s clearheaded, lucid prose, all you think is ‘How’d this profoundly well-meaning, super-capable person end up in prison?’ And then she tells you. A truly demented fable of patriotism and where it can lead you.”—Ira Glass, This American Life

“Winner eloquently defends her choices [and] takes full responsibility … This is important and cautionary testimony.”—Booklist (starred)

A brilliant linguist, devout patriot, voracious reader, and fitness and yoga enthusiast, Reality Winner was a US Air Force veteran working at the NSA when she leaked a classified document containing revelations about the 2016 US presidential election. Today she is a CrossFit coach living in South Texas and studying to become a licensed veterinary technologist.