DECEMBER 2023

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin | 5 out of 5

"A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants' gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters... "

Manifest for Maintenance Art by Mierle Laderman Ukeles | 4.8 out of 5

"The tension Ukeles felt between her role as an artist and her role as a mother led her to write three-and-a-half page Maintenance Art Manifesto in 1969. The manifesto emphasizes maintenance (domestic, as well as general/public and earth maintenance) as a creative strategy. In the manifesto, she also challenges the domestic role of women, and proclaims herself a "maintenance artist". She explains that the manifesto came about when she "felt like two separate people...the free artist and the mother/maintenance worker.... I was never working so hard in my whole life, trying to keep together the two people I had become. Yet people said to me, when they saw me pushing my baby carriage, 'Do you do anything?'...Then I had an epiphany... I have the freedom to name maintenance as art. I can collide freedom into its supposed opposite and call that art. I name necessity art." She reiterates this view in the manifesto, writing, "I am an artist. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. (Random order). I do a hell of a lot of washing, cleaning, cooking, renewing, supporting, preserving, etc. Also, (up to now separately) I 'do' Art. Now I will simply do these everyday things, and flush them up to consciousness, exhibit them, as Art."

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi | 5 out of 5

"Fairy-tale romances end with a wedding, and the fairy tales don't get complicated. In this book, the celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently.

Mary challenges Mr. Fox to join her in stories of their own devising; and in different times and places, the two of them seek each other, find each other, thwart each other, and try to stay together, even when the roles they inhabit seem to forbid it. Their adventures twist the fairy tale into nine variations, exploding and teasing conventions of genre and romance, and each iteration explores the fears that come with accepting a lifelong bond. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox's game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?"

Notes on Craft: Writing in the hour of Genocide by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi | 5 out of 5

"What does Palestine require of us, as writers writing in English from within the imperial core, in this moment of genocide? I want to offer here some notes and some directions towards beginning to answer this question."

Sick4Sick by torrin a. greathouse | 5 out of 5

NOTE: this doesn't have a description so i'll write my own!

a poem about radical disabled love

The Insiders Zine by Joseph Nichols | 4.7 out of 5

"This zine was created by an individual currently in the carceral system. It is aimed at advocating for prison and justice reform and serves as a glimpse into the daily struggles that folks within the carceral system face daily."

The Blade and The Bloodwright by Sloane Leong | 5 out of 5

NOTE: this doesn't have a description so i'll write my own!

a short story about a warrior and the viscera-powered weapon of a woman in his charge as they work to defeat enemies of their chiefdom

Anti-Zionism as Decolonisation by Leila Shomali and Lara Kilani | 5 out of 5

NOTE: this doesn't have a description so i'll write my own!

an essay by a Palestinian and Palestinian-American writer detailing the importance of centering decolonisation and Palestinian voices in anti-zionist activism

Just A Little Snack by Yah Yah Scholfield | 5 out of 5

"A pregnant woman is devoured by an unsettling hunger. A man is buried alive, punished for a crime that is none. A boy goes missing, and he returns, changed.

In this collection of nine disturbing horror stories, the author of On Sundays, She Picked Flowers explores themes of disconcerting appetites of body and mind, of decay and the restless dead. Yah Yah Scholfield skillfully engages with Southern Gothic and Afro-Gothic traditions to create unsettling tales about nature, religion, and the body. Just a Little Snack is a perfect treat for fans of Her Body and Other Parties and What Moves the Dead."