Radical Futures

When a little boy drowns in the Nile, a Sudanese village is forced to confront its racist past in Reem Gaafar’s debut novel A Mouth Full of Salt. Narrated through a choral protagonist, the novel weaves together the lives of villagers who are suddenly beset by a curse: the drowning is followed by another death, and cattle begin to contract a mysterious illness.  The village is an allegory inte...

Sim Kern’s journey as an outspoken and empathetic activist for Palestinian liberation began when they realized, as a teenager, that global warming would blow up our planet one day. Back in 1999, saving the environment was not a “mainstream” topic and for Sim, these early climate justice concerns became an entry point for understanding that our global system was catastrophically racist, colonial an...

Writer, editor, and publisher Marcia Lynx Qualey  remarked  that “the literature currently in the spotlight, in many languages, is Palestinian” while accepting the  Ottaway Award  for the Promotion of International Literature in 2024.  As Israel’s  genocide  of Palestinians continues, Marcia said that the demand for Palestinian literature has grown exponentially....

The feature-length documentary A State of Passion (2024) co-directed by Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi takes us deeper into the unfolding war on Gaza through the eyes of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah. For almost two years, the extraordinary violence in Gaza has been broadcast live on our screens, even as those who strive to document it are being assassinated right in front of our eyes. Yet, the witnessin...