Your hold is ready! (6. 21. 24)

June 21, 2024

Hi everyone, and happy end-of-June (and Solstice). It feels like every month has me starting this message with “it’s been a chaotic/busy month,” but truly, it has. The month began with strikes against the repression of student activism for Palestinian liberation, and broadly, against UC complicity in and profit from the Palestinian genocide. By finals, after several failed attempts to halt the strike, the UC finally found a court that agreed with them, resulting in a “temporary restraining order” that effectively ended the strike for what few days remained of the 2023-24 academic year. The Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP), the encampment on uc davis’s campus, has just formally announced [for now] decampment, with promises (and the intent to keep them) that “we’re just getting started–– until liberation and return.”

Meanwhile, in the settler state, the mask falls. Settler colonialism is fascism. It always has been [link is to a paywall-liberated PDF on the nazi practice of lebensraum and its linkages to settler colonialism and indigenous genocide in the ‘u.s.’ To those observing the present Palestinian genocide, the ideologies and practices associated with lebensraum will be familiar].

But. we know that we will win.

From the river to the sea.

Perhaps this moment of…optimism? Observation? Is strange. It feels strange for me, too, and I know in my heart that it is momentary. Tomorrow or tonight or an hour from now will be crying again, and I will be bearing witness through my tears, because I must.

[Since writing the above paragraph, I have opened Instagram and watched Bisan Owda latest report. As I write this, she is still alive. She is the same age as me. With tears in my eyes, I give her as many flowers as I can bear to hold.]

There’s no easy transition from this opening to the kind of anxiety-joy-hope I feel in other aspects of my life. I’ve spoken to others with similar experiences –– getting degrees, publishing books, receiving accolades –– and feeling, for lack of a better word, weird about celebrating amid a genocide, let alone doing book promotion. Obviously, no one, including myself, has a way to “balance” these things. The solution is a free Palestine. In the meantime, I’m going to share some book news/me-related-news. And I’m going to commit, once again, to bring Palestine wherever I publish; wherever I go.

In terms of Failure to Comply, whose most recent (as I write this) news you can find in my previous missive, I’m pleased to announce that a portion of the money from pre-orders between now and June 30 are going to queer Palestinian organization alQaws. A portion from the month of July will go to the Wildflower Alliance, a Mad anti-carceral collective based in massachusetts.

You can still request the book on Edelweiss, and you can pre-order the book at a discount from Bookshop [this is my affiliate link]. In the interest of transparency: I’m going to be making some shelves on Bookshop and linking my profile on this newsletter in the future. I will not be using affiliate links when listing the month’s five-star books, and will continue instead to link my reviews on Goodreads. Any affiliate links I end up including will be disclosed, and I will be minimizing their use as much as I can. If you’d like to see me in-person/get a signed book, my website will feature the latest details about book-tour-related events.

Lastly, as always: contact me if you’re interested in a review/interview, add it on Goodreads and Storygraph, request the book at your library, and tell your friends.

ICYMI: manywor(l)ds issue 4 dropped on May 15! Regular submissions are open through July 31, and year-round MENA/SWANA writers + those interested in submitting writing about their time at pro-Palestine encampments.

Mad dykes and friends are welcome to submit my guest-edited issue of Sinister Wisdom called Mad Dykes, Queer Worlds, open through June 30! Don’t miss out!

Now, onto the recommendations.

Today’s Recs:

Books:

Audio & Visual Media

Poetry & Prose & In-Between:

Essays and Articles:

My Recent Work: