Defiantly Optimistic: Turning Up in a World on Fire, Collected Writings 2007–2022 brings together texts by Canadian artist Jen Delos Reyes, including essays, letters, articles, poems, interviews, social media posts, and more. Through these texts, the reader will gain insights into her work centered in socially engaged art and education, community-based organizing, artist-led culture, and agriculture. Tender, candid, and often moving, Delos Reyes’s writings are essential for understanding her practice rooted in creating space and support for other artists, which has often been an anchor for developments within the larger field of social practice.