Mohammed El-Kurd In this year’s Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton, published in The Nation, activist and poet Mohammed El-Kurd discusses Said’s 1984 essay “Permission to Narrate,” which critiques how Western coverage of the Israeli-Lebanese War was biased toward the Israeli narrative and suppressed the Palestinian point of view. El-Kurd identifies a similar situation at hand today, with Western mainstream media creating a false dichotomy in which Palestinians “are either victims or terrorists” and only deemed sympathetic if they are “perfect victims.” Countering this, El-Kurd writes: “We are human not just because we cry when we lose our mothers,

At AnOther magazine, an interview with Jackie Wang, whose new book Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun was just published by Semiotext(e). Wang says of her process, “Usually, I’m just obsessively collecting quotes, writings, fragments, meditations, and not even thinking that it’s for anything. It’s almost like I have to go behind my back to get writing out.” Wang will appear in conversation with Janice Lee at Powell’s Books in Portland on December 8th. 

Mosab Abu Toha. Photo: City Lights  Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet from Gaza and winner of the American Book Award, was detained and reportedly beaten by the IDF after being stopped with his family at a military checkpoint on Sunday while trying to cross the border into Egypt. He has since been released in Gaza. Diana Buttu, a former PLO spokesperson and family friend of Abu Toha’s, has said that he is now with his family, and told the New York Times that “he was likely freed because of public pressure, including from publications like The New Yorker

Anne Boyer Anne Boyer—the author of the poetry collection Garments Against Women, the essay collection A Handbook of Disappointed Fate, and the nonfiction book The Undying—has resigned from her position as poetry editor at the New York Times Magazine, stating: “The Israeli state’s U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone.” She also writes: “I can’t write about poetry amid the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more verbally sanitized hellscapes. No more warmongering lies.”  The winners of the 2023 National Book

Lexi Freiman The National Book Awards are tonight at 8 pm Eastern time. The event, hosted by LeVar Burton, will be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook. Ahead of the event, two sponsors have withdrawn their participation after learning that some of the awardees would likely address the war in Gaza. The National Book Foundation released a statement: “Political statements, if made, are by no means unprecedented in the history of the National Book Awards, or indeed any awards ceremony. We are working with the venue to ensure a safe environment for all our guests. We of course hope

Jazmine Hughes and Jamie Lauren Keiles on Democracy Now!, November 14, 2023 Former New York Times Magazine staff writer Jazmine Hughes and contributing writer Jamie Lauren Keiles speak with Democracy Now! in their first broadcast interview since resigning from the publication after signing an open letter published by Writers Against the War on Gaza.  n+1 has published a collection of voice memos from Gazans, transcribed and translated by a group of volunteers in New York City and Chicago. “I’m six wars old,” said Sahar Kalloub on October 22. On October 13, 10-year-old Salma Alghalayini said: “It’s so hard, but

Prudence Peiffer. Photo: Charles Fulford. In The Nation, a remembrance of activist and lawyer Ady Barkan, who died of ALS last week at the age of thirty-nine. As Sarah Johnson and Brad Lander write, Barkan did not let his diagnosis slow down his activism: “He recognized that his own story, his failing voice, his dying body had become powerful tools for change that he could add to his organizing toolkit. As he lost the ability to move, his organizing dexterity only grew.”  For The Guardian, Moira Donegan writes about the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and how

Rupi Kaur. Photo: Baljit Singh n+1 has published an open letter drafted by a group of Jewish writers, artists, and activists disavowing the idea “that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic.” The letter goes on to state: “It is precisely because of the painful history of antisemitism and lessons of Jewish texts that we advocate for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people. We refuse the false choice between Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom; between Jewish identity and ending the oppression of Palestinians. In fact, we believe the rights of Jews and Palestinians go hand-in-hand.” Canadian poet

Hagai El-Ad. Photo by Keren Manor/activestills.org For the New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner interviews Israeli activist Hagai El-Ad about the West Bank.  In The Drift, seven short essays on Gaza by Bobuq Sayed, Dylan Saba, Hadas Binyamini, Mariam Barghouti, Nasreen Abd Elal, Natan Last, and Sophia Goodfriend. n+1 has launched its 2023 Bookmatch personality test. If you donate any amount to support the magazine, you’ll be able to take a brief quiz that editors and friends of n+1 will use to create a personalized reading list for you. This year, the recommendations will come from authors including Hernan Diaz, Deborah

Isabella Hammad. Photo: Elizabeth van Loan  Simon Schuster has been acquired by private equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion.  The editorial board of the Financial Times has issued a statement on the war on Gaza: “It is time for a humanitarian ceasefire. That would ease the suffering of Palestinians and cool regional tensions. Hamas must release all hostages.” The Paris Review has published the novelist Isabella Hammad’s Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture, which was delivered this September at Columbia University. She discusses the Palestinian struggle, crisis and turning points, “recognition scenes,” and writing about the life of her great-grandfather

Namwali Serpell. Photo: Peg Skorpinski At the New York Review of Books, Namwalie Serpell writes about “clockiness,” George Eliot, and whether there is such a thing as a “female style.”  Artforum editor-in-chief David Velasco has been fired following the publication of an open letter about the Gaza war on the magazine’s website, which states, among other things, “We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations

Rashid Khalidi At The Drift, an interview with historian Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, about the situation in Gaza and the media coverage of the war: “I used to write about Soviet Middle East policy, and in those days, the only sources we had were Pravda, Izvestia, Krasnaya Zvezda, and so on. I feel today like I’m back in the Cold War and The New York Pravda Times and Washington Izvestia Post are mouthpieces for the Biden administration.” An open letter about the Gaza war posted on Artforum.com with more than 8,000 signatures has

Meghan O’Rourke At the London Review of Books, more than six hundred writers and artists have signed an open letter on the situation in Palestine: “In Gaza, neither the occupying power, Israel, nor the armed groups of the people under occupation, the Palestinians, can ever be justified in targeting defenseless people. We can only express our grief and heartbreak for the victims of these most recent tragedies, and for their families, both Palestinians and Israelis. Nothing can retrieve what has already been lost. But the unprecedented and indiscriminate violence that is still escalating against the 2.3 million Palestinians in

Louise Glück. Photo © Katherine Wolkoff  Louise Glück, the Nobel and Pulitzer winning poet and essayist, died on Friday last week. At the New Yorker, several writers, readers, and former students remember her work. Hilton Als writes: “Even though she was considered a confessional poet, along the lines of Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath, early in her career, I have to say that part of what I grew to love about her writing was how much she was hiding in plain sight within it. It is very difficult to find the metaphors that ring true about a life, but

Teju Cole. Photo: Martin Lengemann Jewish Currents is seeking reader questions about the situation in Israel/Palestine for an explainer piece that will be reported on a rolling basis over the coming weeks.  At The Nation, read an excerpt from Dan Sinykin’s Big Fiction about the invention of the term “literary fiction” some four decades ago: “Under newly intense economic pressure, publishers used it to describe less overtly market-driven work; booksellers described their shops as featuring literary fiction—or not; and book reviewers held it up as a standard to aspire to.” In his New Yorker review of Teju Cole’s new

Jon Fosse. Photo: Tom A. Kolstad / Det Norske Samlaget Jon Fosse has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Last year, Merve Emre interviewed the Norwegian author for the New Yorker. “I have to go to the borders of my mind, and I have to cross these borders,” Fosse told Emre. “And to cross these borders is frightening if you’re feeling very fragile. I was like that for some years. I simply didn’t dare to write my own things because I was afraid of crossing these borders in myself. When I’m writing well, I have this very clear

Miranda July. Photo: Todd Cole. Lauren Oyler has announced that her new book of essays, No Judgment, will be published in March 2024. She described the book as “Eight new essays, nothing previously published, on gossip, Goodreads, Berlin, autofiction, vulnerability, anxiety, spoilers, and revenge.” The Guardian looks at the betting odds for the Nobel Prize in Literature, which will be announced tomorrow morning. Can Xue is currently leading at 8 to 1, with Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie also said to be favorites. In the spring 2020 issue of Bookforum, Gerald Howard made the case for why

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Photo © Limitless Imprint Entertainment The National Book Awards longlist has been announced. Among the finalists are Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah for Chain-Gang All-Stars, Justin Torres for Blackouts, Christina Sharpe for Ordinary Notes, and Bora Chung for Cursed Bunny.  At Washingtonian magazine, Andrew Beaujon has put together an oral history of the events behind the film Shattered Glass (2003), which tells the true story of disgraced New Republic reporter Stephen Glass. “What everyone says about him is he was this brilliant writer who couldn’t report any facts,” said New York columnist Jonathan Chait, who was in the

Michael Chabon is one of the authors who has filed a lawsuit against companies who have used his books to train AI. Photo: Gage Skidmore Alex Reisner writes about the more than 170,000 books that were used, without permission, to train various AI systems. The dataset, known as Book3, is now at the center of a series of copyright-infringement lawsuits brought by Michael Chabon, Sarah Silverman, and others. Reisner, who has now publicizing a search tool that allows you to see what books have been used in the AI projects, writes: “I’ve heard from several authors wanting to know

Rumaan Alam The Writers Guild of America has voted to accept a deal with Hollywood studios, and the strike order has ended. Hollywood writers will vote on ratifying the contract in early October. The new Dilettante Army is out now. The Fall 2023 edition is called “Definitive Guide,” and asks its contributors to think about what guides are good for, how they might stifle, and what their radical possibilities might be. The issue includes work by Abby Kluchin and Patrick Blanchfield, Adora Svitak, Christopher Reeves, and many more.   Farrar, Straus, and Giroux have acquired Catherine Lacey’s next two books.