Culture Matters

Culture Matters

Boycott of Israeli cultural institutions
Thursday, 31 October 2024 19:30

Boycott of Israeli cultural institutions

Published in Cultural Commentary

More than 1,000 authors have launched a boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people, and Culture Matters supports the boycott. These writers and authors have pledged to boycott Israeli cultural institutions. The letter (published below) represents the largest commitment to cultural boycott ever made by the global literary community against the Israeli cultural sector:

We, as writers, publishers, literary festival workers, and other book workers, publish this letter as we face the most profound moral, political and cultural crisis of the 21st century. The overwhelming injustice faced by the Palestinians cannot be denied. The current war has entered our homes and pierced our hearts.

The emergency is here: Israel has made Gaza unlivable. It is not possible to know exactly how many Palestinians Israel has killed since October, because Israel has destroyed all infrastructure, including the ability to count and bury the dead. We do know that Israel has killed, at the very least, 43,362 Palestinians in Gaza since October and that this is the biggest war on children this century.

This is a genocide, as leading expert scholars and institutions have been saying for months. Israeli officials speak plainly of their motivations to eliminate the population of Gaza, to make Palestinian statehood impossible, and to seize Palestinian land. This follows 75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Culture has played an integral role in normalizing these injustices. Israeli cultural institutions, often working directly with the state, have been crucial in obfuscating, disguising and artwashing the dispossession and oppression of millions of Palestinians for decades.

We have a role to play. We cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement. This was the position taken by countless authors against South Africa; it was their contribution to the struggle against apartheid there.

Therefore: we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians. We will not cooperate with Israeli institutions including publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that:

A) Are complicit in violating Palestinian rights, including through discriminatory policies and practices or by whitewashing and justifying Israel's occupation, apartheid or genocide, or

B) Have never publicly recognized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law.

To work with these institutions is to harm Palestinians, and so we call on our fellow writers, translators, illustrators and book workers to join us in this pledge. We call on our publishers, editors and agents to join us in taking a stand, in recognising our own involvement, our own moral responsibility and to stop engaging with the Israeli state and with complicit Israeli institutions.

Initiating Signatories,

Fatin Abbas
Taiba Abbas
Nuzhat Abbas
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Amy Abdelnoor
Sandy Abdelrahman
Idil Abdillahi
Mohamed Abdou
Hassan Abdulrazzak
Omar Abed
Jordan Abel
Aria Aber
Charlotte Abotsi
Alex Abraham
George Abraham
Susan Abulhawa
Maan Abutaleb
Samuel Ace
Tendayi Emily Achiume
Pip Adam
Brittany Adames
Juana Adcock
Amanda Addison
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nancy Agabian
Pragya Agarwal
Tolu Agbelusi
Zena Agha
Silvia Aguilera
Aamina Ahmad
Rukhsana Ahmad
Naylah Ahmed
Shahnaz Ahsan
Cina Aissa
Jim Aitken
Amna A. Akbar
Kaveh Akbar
Sascha Akhtar
Vasiliki Albedo
Ammiel Alcalay
Kathleen Alcott
Aleksander Aleksander
Michelle Alexander
Kristen Vida Alfaro
Farah Ali
Kazim Ali
Hassan Ali
Najwa Ali
Sabrina Ali
Salma Ali
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Kip Alizadeh
San Alland
Ashleigh Allen
Esther Allen
Rachael Allen
Lulu Allison
Ekbal Alothaimeen
Yazan Al-Saadi
Yassin Alsalman
Hanan Al-Shaykh
Lilliam Eugenia Gómez Álvarez
Miguel Álvarez Sánchez
Raquel Alvarez Sanchez
Hatem Aly
Alia Alzougbi
Justice Ameer
Suad Amiry
Sarah Amsler
Tahmima Anam
Anthony Anaxagorou
Darran Anderson
Sophie Anserson
Abi Andrews
Chris Andrews
Noah Angell
Callum Angus
Aileen Angsutorn
Sinan Antoon
Raymond Antrobus
Marni Appleton
Gina Apostol
Laura Arau
Nilson Araujo de Souza
Farhaana Arefin
John Manuel Arias
Julia Armfield
Amy Arnold
Mirene Arsanios
Ayan Artan
Claire Askew
Marigold Atkey
Polly Atkin
Jennifer Atkins
Jacqueline Atta-Hayford
James Attlee
Matthew Austin
Makram Ayache
MiMi Aye
Sarah Aziza
Hajjar Baban
Indie Laras Bacas
Tareq Baconi
Danielle Badra
Valérie Bah
Bilal Baig
Priya Bains
Jennifer Baker
Jo Baker
Nikkitha Bakshani
Sita Balani
Emily Balistrieri
Ibtisam Barakat
Frank Barakat
J. Mae Barizo
Lana Barkaei
Tim Barker
Frankie Barnet
Cassandra Barnett
Damian Barr
Emily Barr
Ania Bas
Lana Bastasic
Liam Bates
Rim Battal
Alyssa Battistoni
Jumana Bayeh
Richard Beck
Sarona Bedwan
Hannah Beer
Henry Bell
Kobby Ben Ben
Ronan Bennett
Ariana Benson
Sophie Benson
Laura van den Berg
Franco Berardi Bifo
Bennet Bergman
David Bergen
Chase Berggrun
Jay Bernard
Susan Bernofsky
Sarah Bernstein
Omar Berrada
Marie-Helene Bertino
Rahul Bery
Deepa Bhasthi
Gargi Bhattacharyya
Fatima Bhutto
Rose Biggin
Joanna Biggs
Irene Bindi
Maya Binyam
Beverley Birch
Brandi Bird
Hera Lindsay Bird
Farid Bitar
Adelheid Bjornlie
Sin Blaché
Grace Blakeley
A K Blakemore
Nicholas Blincoe
Selina Boan
Lindsey Boldt
Yolanda Bonnell
Naomi Booth
Patricia Borlenghi
Houria Bouteldja
Felix Chau Bradley
Gracie Mae Bradley
Katie Bradshaw
Solomon Brager
Nathaniel Braia
Beth Brambling
Dionne Brand
James Bridle
Elizabeth Briggs
Octavia Bright
Victoria Brittain
Rula Jones Brock
Marianna Brooker
Jennifer Brough
Jericho Brown
Kerry Donovan Brown
Simone Browne
Natascha Bruce
Anca Bucur
Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Judith Butler
Alex Caan
Troy Cabida
Amina Cain
Danny Caine
Felicity Callard
Jen Calleja
Anje Monte Calvo
Marta Fernández Campa
Rosa Campbell
Olga Campofreda
Paul Cannon
Anthony V. Capildeo
Anna Carastathis
Peter Carey
Daragh Carville
Brad Casey
Maya Caspari
Joyoti Grech Cato
Fesal Chain
Jody Chan
Vajra Chandrasekera
Jade Chang
Hayan Charara
Jos Charles
Ruth Charnock
Amit Chaudhury
Cathy Linh Che
Alexander Chee
Melissa Chemam
Anelise Chen
Ching-In Chen
Lisa Hsiao Chen
Tim Tim Cheng
Heerahn Cheon
Selim-a Atallah Chettaoui
Eugene Yiu Nam Cheung
Anne Chisholm
Satinder Kaur Chohan
Mona Chollet
Cat Chong
Chrysanthemum
Bora Chung
Gina Chung
Tice Cin
Jo Blair Cipriano
Susannah Clapp
Eliza Clark
Caro Clarke
John Clifford
Dave Coates
Lucy Coats
Lindsey Collen
Bea Colley
Peter Collins
David Colmer
Joey Connolly
Rachel Connolly
Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Swithun Cooper
Hannah Copley
Jonah Corne
Jacqui Cornetta
Rio Cortez
Mary Costello
Glen Coulthard
Leah Cowan
Molly Crabapple
Raymond Craib
Mac Crane
Andy Croft
Paul Ian Cross
Tess Cullity
Harriet Cummings
Doreen Cunningham
Faye Cura
Grace Curtis
Lauren Aimee Curtis
Sarah Cypher
Selma Dabbagh
Sky Dair
Gabriel Dalpiaz
William Dalrymple
Alain Damasio
Jared Davidson
Danielle Davis
Jenny Fran Davis
Roisin Davis
Gloria Dawson
Aviah Sarah Day
Eccy de Jonge
Saraid de Silva
Ren Dean
Tricia Dearborn
Siddhartha Deb
Claire Dederer
Sharanya Deepak
Michael DeForge
Trynne Delaney
Lauren Delphe
Jemma Desai
Sharan Dhaliwal
Junot Díaz
Natalie Diaz
Susannah Dickey
Ellen Dillon
Brian Dillon
Nicola Dinan
Merima Dizdarević
Farzana Doctor
Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Ted Dodson
Anna Doherty
Michael Donkor
Sarah Dowling
Nicky Downes
Erin Doyle
Ian Dreiblatt
Sarah Driver
Sophie Drukman-Feldstein
OmiSoore H. Dryden
Sharon Duggal
Lisa Duggan
Cyrus Dunham
Natalie Dunn
Roisin Dunnett
Ben Durham
Carolina Ebeid
Caroline Eden
Martin Edmond
Chikè Frankie Edozien
Ben Ehrenreich
Deborah Eisenberg
Nidhi Zakaria Eipe
Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Nadine El-Enany
Tala El-Fahmawi
Yara El-Ghadban
Walid El Hamamsy
Mirna El Helbawi
Mohammed El-Kurd
Mirna El Mahdy
Yasmin El-Rifae
Inua Ellams
Zetta Elliott
Maia Elsner
Lucie Elven
Soula Emmanuel
Jonathan Emmett
Shareefa Energy
Mercedes Eng
Annie Ernaux
Ninar Esber
Martín Espada
Nick Estes
Sarala Estruch
Diana Evans
Gareth Evans
Percival Everett
Eve L. Ewing
Keeyana Ezna (Kezna Dalz)
Allegra Le Fanu
David Farr
Shon Faye
Sonia Fayman
Melissa Febos
Silvia Federici
Elaine Feeney
Anita Felicelli
Camonghne Felix
Jordan Felkey
Megan Fernandes
Ferrao
Julie Finidori
Susan Finlay
Samuel Fisher
Emily Fitzell
Fernando A. Flores
Genessee Floressantos
Angela Flournoy
Omar Foda
Ashley Fortier
Sesshu Foster
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Dan Fox
Lorna Scott Fox
Livia Franchini
Micha Frazer-Carroll
Indigo Freeman
Ru Freeman
Talia Freimanis
Sasha Frere-Jones
Connor Frew
Temim Fruchter
Diane Fujino
Oliver Fugler
Elizabeth Fullerton
Aja Gabel
Ellen Gabriel
Kay Gabriel
Mary Gaitskill
Harry Gallon
Shannon Galpin
Jay Gao
Angela Garbes
Marc Garcés
Suzanne Gardinier
Ed Garland
Camryn Garret
Florence Gauthier
Karl Geary
Joma Geneciran
Puloma Ghosh
Nadene Ghouri
Annie Gibson
Harry Josephine Giles
Cassia Gaden Gilmartin
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Fausto Giudice
Nicholas Glastonbury
Carly Gledhill
Rory Gleeson
Sinéad Gleeson
Brannavan Gnanalingam
Katie Goh
Em Goldman
Martin Gollan
Noam Gonick
Gia Gonzales
Elisa Gonzalez
Avery Gordon
Sylvia Gorelick
Molly Gott
Rebecca Ruth Gould
Niven Govinden
Marlowe Granados
Greg Grandin
Charlotte Geater
Aoife Greenham
Madeleine Grive
Faïza Guène
Amba Guerguerian
Gioia Guerzoni
Guy Gunaratne
Anna Gunin
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Susila Gurusami
Kevin Guyan
Marilyn Hacker
Saleem Haddad
Swapna Haddow
Subhi Hadidi
Jessica Hagedorn
Simon Haines
Mashinka Firunts Hakopian
Robert Hamberger
Mohsin Hamid
Omar Robert Hamilton
Isabella Hammad
Mohammed Hanif
Kaoutar Harchi
Githa Hariharan
Matef Harmachis
Malcolm Harris
Will Harris
Alison B. Hart
Markus Harwood-Jones
Sabrin Hasbun
Mir Shamsedin Fallah Hashemi
Sarvat Hasin
Tobi Haslett
Janet Hatherley
Owen Hatherley
Alice Hattrick
Naomi Head
Sophia Hembeck
Nadia Henderson
Catherine Hernandez
Etzali Hernández
féi hernandez
Liz Heron
Trevor Herriot
Kit Heyam
layla-roxanne hill
Matt Rowland Hill
Afua Hirsch
Emma Hislop
Bára Hladík
Jean Chen Ho
Hermione Hoby
Jennifer Hodgson
Annie Hodson
Rachel Holmes
Cathy Park Hong
Claire Hong
Amelia Horgan
Tansy E. Hoskins
Andrew Hsiao
Jane Hu
Sally Huband
Mike Huett
Caoilinn Hughes
Femi Hughes
Kelly X. Hui
William Rayfet Hunter
Anton Hur
Amber Husain
Emteaz Hussain
Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Jungeun Hwang
Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Mayada Ibrahim
Sabrina Imbler
Saba Imtiaz
Paul Ingram
Mie Inouye
Anne Irwin
Burhana Islam
Hanan Issa
Deepa Iyer
Mira Jacob
Harriet Jae
Sarah Jaffe
Nasim Marie Jafry
Wren James
Leslie Jamison
Randa Jarrar
Tom Jeffreys
Nozizwe Jele
Mike Jempson
Mike Jenkins
Claire Jimenez
Ha Jin
Jessica Gaitán Johannesson
Jessica Johns
Daisy Johnson
Evan Johnson
Galen Johnson
Jenny Johnson
Rebecca May Johnson
Caitlin Johnstone
El Jones
Ellen E Jones
Owen Jones
Kira Josefsson
Fady Joudah
Laura Ellen Joyce
Helen Jukes
Park min jung
Loll Jung
Jennifer Kabat
Dina Ahmed Kabil
Elaine Kahn
Shubnum Khan
Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Megan Kamalei Kakimoto
Donia Kamal
Anjali Kamat
Meena Kandasamy
Malav Lanuga
Balsam Karam
Ghada Karmi
Raghu Karnad
Yumna Kassab
Karim Kattan
Arthur Kaufman
Sophie Monks Kaufman
Navjot Kaur
Rupi Kaur
Sharada Keats
noam keim
Robin D.G. Kelley
Kaie Kellough
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
Niyati Keni
Peter Kennard
Louise Kenward
Emily Kenway
Jennie Kermode
Amy Key
Porochista Khakpour
Muhammed Ali Khalidi
Hannah Khalil
Amyra El Khalili
Shamus Khan
Taran Kahn
Tawseef Khan
Michelle Khazaryan
Lydia Kiesling
Crystal Hana Kim
SJ Kim
Shilo Kino
Ana Kinsella
Gary Kinsman
Blue Kirkhope
Alyson Kissner
Vanessa Kisuule
Naomi Klein
Cecilia Knapp
Rosalie Knecht
Lisa Ko
Claire Kohda
Jamil Jan Kochai
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
Gowri Koneswaran
Amelia Kraigher
Kate Kremer
Michelle de Kretser
Nancy Kricorian
Charlot Kristensen
Mark Krotov
Zaffar Kunial
Hari Kunzru
Rachel Kushner
Grace Kwan
Abdellatif Laabi
Souad Labbize
Armelle Laborie-Sivan
Catherine Lacey
Daisy Lafarge
Marion Olharan Lagan
Sabinha Lagoun
Jhumpa Lahiri
Léopold Lambert
Asma Lamrabet
Charles Lang
Michael Langan
Patrick Langley
Sarah Lasoye
Davide Gallo Lassere
Andrea Lawlor
Tim Lawrence
Kiese Laymon
Jessica J. Lee
Matthew Lee
Soje Lee
Sara Lefsyk
Eugenia Leigh
Raven Leilani
Mica Lemiski
Ben Lerner
Céline Leroy
Jonathan Lethem
Anna Leventhal
Sophie Lewis
Daryl Li
Erika Olofsson Liljedahl
Sasha Lilley
Thea Lim
Ursula Lindsey
David Ross Linklater
Jazmine Linklater
Robert Liu-Trujillo
Mikaela Loach
Kirsty Logan
Amber Lone
Layli Long Soldier
Cherise Lopes-Baker
Alan Pelaez Lopez
Kyle Carrero Lopez
Nora Loreto
Roberto Lovato
Lia lovenitti
Rebecca Lowe
Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Emily Lee Luan
Canisia Lubrin
Melissa Lucashenko
Valeria Luiselli
Ed Luker
Len Lukowski
Tariq Luthun
lisa minerva luxx
Alexis Lykiard
Eadaoin Lynch
Rosa Lyster
Maatin
Helen Macdonald
Robert Macfarlane
Carmen Maria Machado
Kama La Mackerel
Weston MacLeod
Guy Maddin
Simon Maddrell
Michael Magee
Sabrina Mahfouz
Michael Malay
Ayisha Malik
Rachel Malik
Emanuela Maltese
Bo Mandeville
Preethi Manuel
Olivier Marboeuf
Spyros Marchetos
Miriam Margolyes
Lauren Markham
Francisco Márquez
Andrew Martin
Manjula Martin
Ariél M. Martinez
Vanessa Martina-Silva
Ahmed Masoud
Patricia Massay
Noreen Masud
Hisham Matar
Sarah Thankam Mathews
Ioanna Mavrou
So Mayer
Robyn Maynard
Kelli McAdams
Tim McCaskell
Sophie McCreesh
Breanna J. McDaniel
Jen McDerra
Martine McDonagh
MK McGrath
Fiona Kelly McGregor
Jon McGregor
Lisa McInerney
Kimberly McIntosh
Oisín McKenna
Rachel McKibbens
Matthew McNaught
Cassie McQuater
Don Mee Choi
Susana Medina
Shafik Meghji
Jamal Mehmood
Pauline Melville
Maaza Mengiste
Juliana Mensah
Lucy Mercer
Iman Mersal
Lina Meruane
Philip Metres
China Miéville
Jon Lindsay Miles
Iulia Militaru
James Miller
John Douglas Miller
Maggie Millner
Nina Millns
Bridget Minamore
Adrian Minckley
John Mingay
Frankie Miren
Fatima Farheen Mirza
Pankaj Mishra
Peter Mitchell
Hussein Mitha
Monique Mojica
Kagiso Lesego Molope
Nadine Monem
Adam Moody
Nathan Alexander Moore
Caroline Moorehead
Alan Morrison
Ghazal Mosadeq
Maria Motunrayo Adebisi
Hannah Moushabeck
Michel S. Moushabeck
Dwi Rahmad Muhtaman
Neel Mukherjee
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Alex Mullarky
Lorna Munro
Nora Lester Murad
Sahar Muradi
Rob Myatt
Sara Mychkine
Taiyo Na
Johanne Lykke Naderehvandi
Noor Naga
David Naimon
Ambika Nair
Ron Naiweld
Taghreed Aref Najjar
mélie boltz nasr
Susheila Nasta
Sham-e-Ali Nayeem
Jennifer Neal
Nawara Negm
Cecily Nicholson
Shanice Nicole
Nic Nicoludis
Kerem Nisancioglu
Rémy Ngamije
Joshua Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Mark Nowak
Clara Nubile
Matteo Nucci
Jonathan Nunn
N S Nuseibeh
Alice Nuttall
Téa Obreht
Richard O'Brien
Anthony Christian Ocampo
Mark O'Connell
Meaghan O'Connell
Sinéad O'Hart
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Nathalie Olah
Daniel José Older
Lola Olufemi
Hussein Omar
Ondjaki
Troy Onyango
Andrés N. Ordorica
Chibbi Orduna
Ian O'Reilly
Kenan Orhan
Amanda Orozco
Fiona O'Rourke
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Alice Oswald
Peter Oswald
Naomi Paik
Patty Paine
Allison Tamarkin Paller
Angela Palm
Gianfranco Pancino
Stan Papoulias
Ajay Parasram
George Parker
Jen Parker
Morgan Parker
Heather Parry
Shailja Patel
Vikki Patis
K Patrick
Lara Pawson
Martha Paynter
Jeda Pearl
Jonathan Pelham
Telka Pelova
Nicola Penfold
Lee Pepper
Rebecca Perry
Zoë Perry
Holly Pester
Gordon Peters
Torrey Peters
Andreas Petrossiants
Richard Phoenix
Laura Di Pietro
Alycia Pirmohamed
Hazel Jane Plante
Edward Plett
Casey Plett
Joanna Pocock
Justine Podur
Ethel Baraona Pohl
Clare Pollard
Gabriel Polley
Max Porter
Nina Mingya Powles
Pratyusha
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Cameron Price
Devon Price
Rosie Price
Joy Priest
Alexandra Pringle
Mira Ptacin
Jasbir Puar
E.R. Pulgar
Derecka Purnell
Marcia Lynx Qualey
Michael Quille
Linda Quiquivix
Zaynah Qutubuddin
Jamali Rad
Monika Radojevic
Nat Raha
Sue Rainsford
Monisha Rajesh
Shivanee Ramlochan
Ravinder Randhawa
Rahul Rao
Clarie Ratinon
Vidyan Ravinthiran
Kate Rawles
Cathy Reay
Jini Reddy
Francesca Reece
Martin Reed
Will Rees
Dave Rendle
Nausicaa Renner
Sarah Resnick
Emma Reynolds
John Reynolds
Jamie Richards
Geoffrey Rickly
Keith Ridgway
Charlotte Lydia Riley
Claude Rioux
Chrissie Roberts
Luke Roberts
Corey Robin
Tom Robinson
Sallyanne Rock
Monique Roffey
Fariha Róisín
Sally Rooney
Sophia K Rosa
Jacqueline Rose
Michael Rosen
Jordy Rosenberg
Gabriel Rosenstock
Tracy Rosenthal
Andrew Ross
Leone Ross
Margaret Ross
Noah Ross
Rhonda Roumani
Heather Rounds
Anita Roy
Arundhati Roy
Ryan Ruby
Chloe Ruthven
Hugh Ryan
Reda Sadiki
Eun Sae (검은새)
Kholod Saghir
Burcu Sahin
Ron Sakolsky
Trish Salah
Aida Salazar
Sara M Saleh
Edward Salem
Mohamed Salmawy
Seif Salmawy
John K Samson
Julia Sanches
Varli Pay Sandi
Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
Ayşegül Savaş
Julian Sayarer
Bobuq Sayed
Laura Scarmoncin
Robin Beth Schaer
James Schamus
Maya Schenwar
Sarah Schulman
Kit Schluter
Bhakti Shringarpure
Susan Schuppli
Claire Schwartz
Cam Scott
Grayson Scott
Walter Scott
Waithera Sebatindira
Kenza Sefrioui
Namwali Serpell
Richard Seymour
Sarah Shaffi
Hamid Darwish Shahkaly
Durre Shahwar
Elhum Shakerifar
Kamila Shamsie
Charif Shanahan
Solmaz Sharif
Azad Ashim Sharma
Kashif Sharma-Patel
Cason Sharpe
Christina Sharpe
Clare Shaw
Dan Sheehan
Farhana Sheikh
Shela Sheikh
Jack Shenker
Tyler Shipley
Parini Shroff
Nikesh Shukla
Terisa Siagatonu
Michèle Sibony
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Safiya Sinclair
Sunny Singh
Hamed Sinno
Leona Skene
Johanna Skibsrud
Ryan Skrabalak
Tara Skurtu
Paulo Slachevsky
Alice Slater
Zeina Sleiman
Gillian Slovo
Mike Small
Nichola Smalley
Deborah Smith
Courtney Smyth
Rhona Snelling
Jess X. Snow
Oki Sogumi
Addy Rivera Sonda
Natasha Soobramanien
Ahdaf Soueif
Rae Spoon
Nicola Spurr
Gina Srmabekian
Cath Staincliffe
Alina Stefanescu
Rebecca Stoehill
Degna Stone
Anna Della Subin
Olivia Sudjic
Jaz Sufi
Smokii Sumac
Marsha Swan
Brandon Sward
Kate Sweeney
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Neferti Tadiar
Madiha Tahir
Rana Tahir
Tanaïs
Ginny Tapley Takemori
Preti Taneja
Rebecca Tamás
Ben Tarnoff
David J Tate
Sasha Tate-Howarth
Annie Taylor
Astra Taylor
Joelle Taylor
Nicholas Taylor
Brian Teare
Saeed Teebi
Janne Teller
Matthew Teller
Emily Temple
Jocelyn Tennant
Jacques Testard
Xuanlin Tham
Charles Theonia
Kai Cheng Thom
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Ashley Thorpe
Andrzej Tichý
Lena Tichy
Jenevieve Ting
Shze-Hui Tjoa
Tara Tobler
Miriam Toews
Owen Toews
Naima Tokunow
Jia Tolentino
Samuel Tongue
Mohamed Tonsy
James Tookey
Justin Torres
Joshua Gutterman Tranen
Jessica Traynor
Shash Trevett
Addie Tsai
Birukti Tsige
Tori Tsui
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Aviva Tuffield
Tony Tulathimutte
Lestyn Tyne
Oana Uiorean
Jack Underwood
Emily Unwin
Hanna Thomas Uose
Simran Uppal
Ryan Vance
Angelique Tran Van Sang
Alejandro Varela
Joe Vaughan
MG Vassanji
Françoise Vergès
Katherena Vermette
Margaux Vialleron
Cecilia Vicuna
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Hannah Vincent
James Vincent
Shola Von Reinhold
Clara Vulliamy
Ocean Vuong
Lindsay Wagner
Mirza Waheed
Isabel Waidner
Rinaldo Walcott
Emma Wallace
Nicole Wallace
Joanna Walsh
Zukiswa Wanner
Patricia Sarrafian Ward
Aea Varfis-van Warmelo
Noah Warren
Rosie Warren
Raffi Joe Wartanian
Bryan Washington
Nadia Wassef
Michael Waters
Max Weiss
Robert Welbourn
Joma West
Imogen West-Knights
Adam Weymouth
Jessica Widner
Rachel Wiley
Elvia Wilk
Frances Williams
Hattie Williams
Lara Williams
Luke Williams
Jenny Heijun Wills
Mia S. Willis
Kitty Wilson
Lorraine Wilson
jiaquing wilson-yang
James Wilt
Gabriel Winant
Jan Winter
Milo Wipperman
James Womack
Marian Womack
Adam Woods
Jan Woolf
Jacob Wren
Kyle Lucia Wu
Karen Wyld
Frank Wynne
Jessica Widner
Robin Yassin-Kassab
Kieran Yates
Jane Yeh
Jade Young
Eris Young
Nariman Youssef
M.O. Yukael
Juliano Zaffino
Abi Zakarian
Kate Zambreno
Javier Zamora
Haifa Zangana
Nazanin Zarepour
Hannah Zeavin
Ghassan Zeineddine
Alia Trabucco Zeran
Aisha Zia
Rasha Zidan
Issam Zineh
Alex Zucker
Jeffrey Zuckerman

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Four poems from 'What Rough Beast'
Wednesday, 30 October 2024 12:03

Four poems from 'What Rough Beast'

Published in Poetry

The following four poems are taken from the What Rough Beast anthology of poems about Trump and Trumpism, available to download here. Image above: Rise Up My Pretties, by Martin Gollan, who also made the drawings below.

Trumpet

WRB trumpets

So bashed from its last fall I can’t remove
the mouthpiece. A mouthpiece I got from a man
on the demo when mine fell out on the Tube.

I don’t need it back he said. We were ‘Trumpets
Against Trump’ and I had not been practising
so was all too easily able to get the discordant

eponymous noise the contingent was aiming for
long after some got fed up and started playing
actual music. I marched head high, proud

with my little clip-on lyre holding the notes
down Regent Street, where we were joined
by Drag Queens against Trump and Soho Radio Allstars.

By Trafalgar Square I was foot and mouth sore.
The sun shone and an orange baby floated above.

Anna Robinson
London, England


[no title]

WRB jumping the shark2

storming the Capitol for a Facebook-tagged selfie
live-streaming on Insta in a bison-horned helmet
Rambos in the Senate cosplay with their zip cuffs

when in insurrection please do not touch the statues
where Donald J. Trump has been jumping the shark
the flayed skin of democracy as a casual jacket

a mortal last stand in the crush at the Speaker’s Lobby
a star-spangled thread count in Brian Sicknick’s lifeblood
the tear-gas hangs heavy with airborne diseases

Clay Thistleton
New South Wales
Australia


The Cursing

WRB great beast2

May your water be the spit of Mexicans.
May cheeseburgers give you cramps.
May you have diarrhoea on your gold-plated toilet seat.
May you have an obstruction every time you abuse power.
May your balls be forever in the sand dunes.
May your creosote tan give you zits.
May there be wind at your back to blow your comb over.
May you get whiplash every time you utter fake news.
May your Real Estate be taken from you to house immigrant families.
May your wealth pay towards slavery reparation.
May you take the knee to women and them take it in turn to punch you.
May transgender people queue up then to kick you.
May you become disabled and have the gait.
May every dying bumblebee sting you.
May you disappear like flu.
May you wear a soundproof mask.
May your champagne taste of Clorox.
May your small thumbs fall off, so you cannot Tweet.
May you be a dummy in Minnesota Police Training for nine minutes.
May you be interned with only Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un for company,
and may even they snub you.

Anita Gracey
Belfast, Ireland

Humpty-Trumpty 

 WRB trumpty dumpty
Humpty-Trumpty sat on his Wall 
Humpty-Trumpty shat on us all 
Not all of his money 
Nor all of his hate 
Should let Humpty-Trumpty
Re-inaugurate 
 
Paul Lewen 
Cahors, France 
 
Cover image: Rise Up My Pretties
Thursday, 24 October 2024 15:18

What Rough Beast

Published in Poetry

In the summer of 2024, Culture Matters put out a call for poetry and artwork related to Donald Trump and Trumpism. Taking the title from WB Yeats’ ‘Second Coming’, the resulting anthology explores the havoc that a second term would unleash on the US and the wider world. With unjust policies, the demonisation of migrants and people of colour, and attacking anyone that tries to hold his feet to the fire, Trump and Trumpism are mistakes that the US cannot afford to make a second time round.

Co-editors Merryn Williams and Rip Bulkeley and others at Culture Matters have fought hard to make this anthology socially useful, an example of Shelley’s dictum that ‘poets are the legislators of the world’. We hope that readers will find laughter in what are some dark times, and that they will know that our solidarity extends over borders.

The contributors to What Rough Beast go for the jugular – the Mexican wall, white supremacism, replacement theory, racism, COVID, the assault on the Capitol, neo-fascism, and the appalling circus of stupidity, ignorance, narcissism, lies and gibberish that Trump and Trumpism spew out.

What Rough Beast is a rich and varied collection, serious and silly, horrified and horrifying, of understatements and exaggerations, parodies and rants, slapstick and analysis of the moral and intellectual crisis in US politics from which Trumpism draws its power.
- Andy Croft, poet and publisher

What Rough Beast is a collective expression of protest. It is a rejection of Trump and the smug inertia that allowed him to slither into our dimension in the first place. The poems, by turns playful, impassioned, and incendiary, show a determination to resist the necrotised supremacy of Trump, Trumpism, and the seemingly unkillable zombie capitalism he represents. With energy and inventiveness, the poems in What Rough Beast keep on swinging, reminding us that although said beast assumes distorted and outlandish proportions, his is a fallible, human power that can and must be overcome.
- Fran Lock

The book is available below as a downloadable pdf. If you like it, please make a donation. A printed version will be available shortly.

Rag Argonauts by Alan Morrison
Thursday, 10 October 2024 22:57

Rag Argonauts by Alan Morrison

Published in Poetry

As we voyage through the uncharted waters of the post-Covid 2020s to the scourge of war again on the European continent, and in the Middle East, a 'cost of living' (or 'greed') crisis of capitalism, a climate and refugee emergency, and an ever-increasing worldwide gap between the super rich and the super poor, we are in a period of ever scarcer resources, a 'ragtime' of a very different timbre to the syncopated rhythms popular during the hedonistic 'roaring' decade of a century ago. 

In Alan Morrison's twelfth volume of poetry, disparate and desperate characters across various time periods, classical to modern, real—ancient Greek orator Demosthenes, 20th c. Ukrainian clairvoyant Helena Blavatsky, Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, pioneering Slovakian psychiatrist Viktor Tausk, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, trans-Atlantic poets T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden—and less real—Harpies-persecuted Phineus of Greek mythology transposed as a benefit claimant preyed upon by the Department for Work and Pensions, demure contemporary spinster and budgerigar-keeper Regina Green, death-tempted poet Parry Amphlett, and a Stochastic Parrot (AI large language model program) capable of sentient thought—navigate passages through ragged waters as randomly gathered 'rag argonauts'.

 'Rag Argonauts is an outstanding achievement that is every bit as ambitious in scope and purpose as it is accomplished in its artistry.' Paul Laughlin, The Morning Star

He has the skill, and the habit, of making every phrase count, stripping out flabby words and turns of speech that we might use in conversation, leaving only the high-octane stuff; but the marvel is, his poetry still reads as the ordinary language of ordinary folk, as old Wordsworth and his chum Coleridge recommended, only heightened, and thus rendered extraordinary. David Betteridge

Rag Argonauts is ... a plangent work of symphonic scope, in which music, beauty, nature, compassion and spirituality provide a stirring counterpoint to the predominant themes of entrapment and despair... 
Naomi Foyle, London Grip

...a poet to be reckoned with, both in terms of his unfashionable socialist viewpoint and his mix of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernism’ in relation to form and approach. Steve Spence, Litter Magazine

This is the most personal and up-to-date of all the collections of Morrison’s that I’ve read. Although Rag Argonauts deals with societal corruption and injustice as always, the constant, lifelong misunderstandings and persecution related to his autism are a departure. Christopher Moncrieff

 

Rag Argonauts
Caparison, 2024
Clothbound hardback, 148pp
 
Rag Argonauts can be ordered via either of the following links:

www.alanmorrison.co.uk/rag-argonauts

www.therecusant.org.uk/caparison-books


For information on an upcoming event related to the book please visit:

www.chi.ac.uk/event/alan-morrison-poet-publisher-critic-in-conversation-with-naomi-foyle/

 

www.youtube.com/@ragargonauts

Fair Play Cabaret: shows with a social and political purpose
Tuesday, 08 October 2024 10:18

Fair Play Cabaret: shows with a social and political purpose

Published in Cultural Commentary

Fair Play Cabaret

With the backing of Equity, a cultural campaign is being launched which is centred around an ongoing series of events across the country. They are attempts, both onstage and offstage, to address aspects of social and cultural changes which have been so detrimental to working people during recent decades. These include attacks on unions, public services and public spaces, low wages, insecure work and poverty.

Shows and events will feature different types of performance, including comedy, music, spoken word and theatre. Generally, the shows will feature four or five performers and will last for two hours. Everyone associated with these events, including performers, must be a union member and provide photos of their union cards for publicity purposes.

This is a wide-ranging strategy in which Equity will initially take the lead, organising cross-union support and collaboration; the first event is at the GFTU headquarters where union activists receive education and training.

Shows will take place in venues which either belong to the labour movement or are, at least, public venues with a unionised workforce. Shows will operate at different scales, from large halls to small libraries. There will always be reduced concessionary admission rates for people who are unwaged.

We intend to book acts whose work best represents our values, providing entertainment which has a political and social purpose.

Fair Play Cabaret is at 8pm on Tuesday 15th October, at Quorn Grange Hotel, 88 Wood Lane, Loughborough, LE12 8DB. Tickets available on the door.

Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2024 - the winners!
Monday, 23 September 2024 10:02

Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2024 - the winners!

Published in Poetry

The five winners of the seventh Bread and Roses Poetry Award are: Linda Burnett, Amy Fox, Bernadette Gallagher, John F. Keane, and Nicholas McGaughey. £100 will wing its wandering way to their worthy workers' wallets, and we'll publish an anthology online, soon. We'll also produce a printed version, by the end of November.

The anthology will include the winning poems plus poems by Neil Clarkson, Josa Keys, Ella Fradgley, Atar J. Hadari, Jane Campbell, Jade Welburn, Jimmy Andrex, Jane Smith, Susan Young, Sim Smailes, Nick Moss, Theeda Winter, Angela Topping, Cameron Evans, Matt Duggan, Steven Taylor, Tara Singh, Sue Moules, Wendy Young, James Lawton, Abu Leila, Tracey Pearson, Curtis Brown, James O’Brien, Melissa Parker, Colette Coen, Seth Connor-Fullwood, Denni Turp, Kevin Searle, and Alan Briggs

We'll send copies to everyone included in the anthology, and it'll be on sale in bookshops and in our Books section. Thanks to all who entered this year, and best wishes to all aspiring writers.

This Albion: Snapshots of  Compromised Land
Monday, 16 September 2024 09:23

This Albion: Snapshots of Compromised Land

Published in Books

In 21 pieces about a variety of urban and rural locations in England, Scotland and Wales, Charlie Hill takes us on a tour of post-industrial Britain. From escaping to the Highlands during the pandemic to a trip to a Soho boozer, from camping in a church in Herefordshire to playing football in inner-city Birmingham, from feeling twitchy in a Gwynedd resort town to a run-in with the builders of HS2, This Albion draws on the theories of the Situationists and the writing of Mark Fisher to create an original and accessible snapshot of a society divided and brought together by geography and class.

Charlie Hill has been longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story prize 2024.

This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land, by Charlie Hill, ISBN 9781912710744, is available here

'A deep, poetic beauty': Review of 'This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land' by Charlie Hill
Monday, 16 September 2024 09:17

'A deep, poetic beauty': Review of 'This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land' by Charlie Hill

Published in Cultural Commentary

Bobby Seal from the Psychogeographic Review reviews This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land by Charlie Hill

I had for some time believed the key to effective writing was to concentrate on the surface of things. Record them faithfully, and they’d do the work for you. After all, the world is manifestly absurd and provides you with everything you need in the way of character and environment and plot; why complicate – or simplify – things with undue authorial mediation?

Recently, however, I had started to question the value of such an approach. . .

Charlie Hill’s slim paperback more than makes up for its lack of length and detail with the depth and perceptivity of his observations as he charts a series of walks he has made through locations in England, Scotland and Wales. The book’s format is simple: each short essay focuses on a particular place Hill has visited in recent years, some urban and some and others rural, and crafts a collecion of meditations on what he sees, hears, thinks and feels.

img src="https://psychogeographicreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/contents-774x1024.jpg" sizes="(max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px" srcset="https://psychogeographicreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/contents-774x1024.jpg 774w, /  

Mercifully, there is nothing self-consciously clever or showy about Hill’s prose, though his resume suggests he is more than capable of writing in this way if he chose to. Instead, he tells his story, his series of stories, simply and clearly. However, the overall achievement of these separate pieces, when considered as a whole, is to present us with something much more profound. Hill’s snapshots show a nation in flux, its people split by division. He feels the weight of history resting heavily on today and senses anxiety about the future underlying much of Britain’s public discourse.

But there is hope aplenty. Like some latter-day pilgrim Hill sketches a starburst of destinations radiating out from his home in Birmingham, England’s phrenic centre.  He is everyman and everywoman, he is you and me, and he guides us on his walks with humour and good sense and, despite the despair he notes in some quarters, he also meets kindness, acceptance and positivity wherever he goes. Though simple and staightforward on the surface, Hill’s writing conjures up a deep poetic beauty.

This Albion: Snapshots of a Compromised Land, by Charlie Hill, ISBN 9781912710744, is available here

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