Double book club for #ReadPalestine week

We're reading Isabella Hammad's "Recognizing The Stranger" and "And Still We Write," a chapbook featuring writers in and from Gaza. And oh, we've moved to Substack!

My name is Bhakti Shringarpure and I co-founded the Radical Books Collective in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time of physical distancing that drove us to seek social connections online. I had been actively publishing Warscapes magazine for a decade by then but community building had begun to feel more urgent. In the 3 years since we transitioned from Warscapes and started the Radical Books Collective, we have come together as a community of booklovers keen to think about the myriad problems we face together: racism, misogyny, war, colonialism, neoliberalism, tyrannical governments, climate crisis, and more. I want to thank you for sticking with us, for reading Warscapes for many years, for coming to our book clubs, for your solidarity, and for your unwavering support. Today’s newsletter might look a bit different but this is only because we have changed to a more cost-effective platform but the frequency, content and the intentions of the Radical Books Collective will remain the same. If you wish to support us, this platform will allow you to upgrade your membership to a paid one.

This past year has been exceptionally tough given the extremity of the violence that continues to unfold in Palestine; a place, a people and a struggle that so many of us hold close in our hearts. Lebanon and Sudan are also bleeding out, it is truly too much. Many of us are experiencing a rupture in our mental health and well-being. Though we first organized events and gatherings with a sense of urgency, feelings of despair have settled in and we have been losing focus, slowing down. But then again, this is what the war-mongering governments and the media wants: for us to give up. So let us try our best to carry on…

We will join the Publishers for Palestine coalition for the second year of Read Palestine Week ( November 29 to December 5, 2024). We continue to engage with the fight for Palestinian freedom by turning to the words of Palestinian writers themselves. Nowhere can we find more powerful expressions of resistance and the will to endure. So for our final event of 2024, gather online with us to read, think, grieve, take solace, take action, and to find inspiration in literature and poetry. We will talk about two works: an essay by Isabella Hammad published as a short book Recognizing The Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative and a speedily issued chapbook by ArabLit titled And Still We Write where Palestinian writers in and from Gaza offer recollections of this past year and reflections on where they are now but more, importantly, they also imagine a future. Register here to receive the chapbook and zoom links.

Trump wins: The US elections colonized our minds for last many weeks and ended with a depressing but predictable loss for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. I co-host a podcast about media gaslighting with Suchitra Vijayan and Madhuri Sastry for The Polis Project. We speed-recorded two episodes about how the Democratic party and the liberal media that upholds them has failed the people of the United States as well as the rest of the world over which it wields a disproportionate influence Take a listen:

Thunderbird Book Launch: I recently had the honor of talking to Palestinian children’s books author Sonia Nimr and her translator Marcia Lynx Qualey on the occasion of the publication of her trilogy Thunderbird into English. The trilogy tells the story of time-traveling Palestinian girl Noor on a mission to save the world, and is a beautiful intervention into questions of history and resistance.

Nimr’s words were moving and empowering at the same time. Here’s the recording:

Previous programs: Lastly, our talks about Sudan and the series on Insurgent Feminisms are also available on the YouTube channel.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at our double book club on December 1st. Until then, take care of yourself and hold your loved ones close. And resist these violent injustices in any and every way you can.

Love and solidarity❤️‍🔥
Bhakti Shringarpure

www.radicalbookscollective.com
Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @warscapes