Format and Roadmap
This page should serve as a continuously updating list of what books we’re going to be reading, and also how we'll talk about them.
For the most part, links here will point to Open Books: A Poem Emporium, to support Workshops 4 Gaza. If you already have all these books, or you just want to make a direct donation, you can donate to The Sameer Project, which is where book proceeds go.
The Format
Generally speaking, we'll follow this format:
- On Mondays, I'll email people with what we'll read that week, and some reflections to kick off the discussion.
- During the week, you can participate in conversations on social media (mostly Bluesky, Twitter, and Mastodon).
- On Saturdays at 12pm ET, we'll get on video chat and have a conversation about our reading for that week.
- 24/7 you can join in the Signal group chat (reach out or subscribe for the invite link).
For any given book (and sometimes as a one-off), I'll occasionally experiment with other formats. We might do spoken readings of an excerpt of something we're reading that week, or I might be able to line up a conversation with an author or editor.
If the experiment seems to be working (and if it isn't too much work for me), it'll eventually become a fixture and it'll go on the list.
Subscribing
You'll have to keep an eye out for those experiments via the newsletter (and for that, you'll have to subscribe). Subscribing to the newsletter is free and will always be free.
You can also support the reading group financially. No premium content, but I'd appreciate it a lot (if you can).
The Roadmap
Past
- Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin (January 20 - February 8) (nb: sold out; you can purchase the paperback copy here).
- If I Must Die: Poetry and Prose by Refaat Alareer (February 10 - March 29)
Now
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
Next
Settler Militarism: World War II in Hawai'i and the Making of US Empire by Juliet Nebolon
Future
These are books we will read, but I don't know exactly when. It'll be after the next book.
I'm pretty confident that the first 2 or 3 entries here are the next 2 or 3 books we'll read, but those plans aren't set in stone. If you're really excited about one of these books, please let me know.
- Ghassan Kanafani Selected Political Writings by Ghassan Kanafani (Author), Louis Brehony (Editor), Tahrir Hamdi (Editor)
- How To Make an Algorithm in the Microwave by Maya Salameh
- Refuge: How The State Shapes Human Potential by Heba Gowayed
- Book of Provocations by Mónica Ortiz
- The Question of Palestine by Edward Said
- After the Last Sky by Edward Said
- Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry edited by George Abraham and Noor Hindi
- We Demand: The University and Student Protests Volume 1 by Roderick A. Ferguson
- On the Korean War and Diasporic Memory Critique by Crystal Mun-Hye Baik
- Thymee Travellers by Sonia Sulaiman
- The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey by Laila El-Haddad
- I Could Die Today & Live Again by Summer Farah
- No One Knows Their Blood Type by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
- Children of the Ghetto: I: My Name Is Adam by Elias Khoury
- Children of the Ghetto II: Star of the Sea by Elias Khoury
- Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq
Suggestions:
If you'd like to suggest a book, especially if it's part of the Workshops4Gaza bookstore fundraiser (though not strictly required), please contact me (bottom of the page). I'm especially keen to add more books by Palestinians.