Red Prepper: Building Collective Resilience in an Age of Collapse

by Eric Shonkwiler

A leftist guide to prepping
For decades, the right has monopolized the culture of preparedness, selling a fantasy of rugged individualism, hoarded rations, and fear. But before the rise of 24-hour grocery stores and just-in-time supply chains, prepping wasn't a political statement: it was just life.

Drawing on his background in emergency services and security, Eric Shonkwiler reclaims prepping from the paranoia of the doomsday industry and reframes it as a vital tool for collective resilience. Red Prepper is a survival guide for the modern activist, bridging the gap between personal safety and community action, teaching you how to build a "deep pantry," filter water during infrastructure failures, and organize your neighbors for mutual aid.

With the rise of fascism and the approach of economic and environmental collapse, Shonkwiler provides the grounded, practical skills you need to stop worrying and start building something better in the rubble.

192 pages, Paperback

Expected publication October 20, 2026

About the author

Eric Shonkwiler is the author of Above All Men, Moon Up, Past Full, and the forthcoming 8th Street Power & Light. His writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Fiddleblack, [PANK] Magazine, and Midwestern Gothic. He was born and raised in Ohio, and received his MFA from The University of California Riverside.