May ended with a little bit of chaos and so far, June hasn’t promised much else. But I was finally able to get some rest this weekend and really dive into a few books, and now I’m feeling refreshed – both physiologically and creatively. This week I’m trying to take advantage of this and work on a few projects – the first of which is this sort of newsletter-like post.
And I thought I’d start with a reading update. While the quantity of books I’ve read in the last month or so have has been low, the quality certainly has not. I think it’s precisely because I haven’t pressured myself to a read a lot that I’ve been able to absorb what I have read. Both of the books I’ve recently finished provided direct inspiration for my largest project – turning my MFA creative thesis into a novel.
First off was Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. This is an incredible collection of stories with a wide range of sub-genres: psychological thrillers, mystical/fantasy, historical fiction, and even some have a little humor laced throughout. A few even read like the prologues to novels all their own. Normally, horror isn’t my preferred genre, but after reading these stories, it’s definitely up there.
The second book I finished was The Removed by Brandon Hobson (who has a story in Never Whistle at Night). One of the key aspects to my creative thesis was non-linearity in storytelling and Brandon’s first novel, Where the Dead Sit Talking, was an influential part of my own work. His second novel is an even better example of how to bridge the past and the present in such a way that you feel like you’re getting multiple stories from one. It is a hauntingly beautiful read.
Inspired by these last two books I went out looking for more like them, and one recommendation was Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (who also has a story in Never Whistle at Night). And sure enough, when I scouted the back cover, I saw an endorsement from Brandon Hobson, which essentially sealed my need for this book (honestly, though, the real thing that sealed it was finding a “used” copy that looked hardly even touched. It saved me like $6). I haven’t had a chance to jump into it yet, but it’s now highly ranked on my TBR pile.
I’m still working through The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi, and oh my word has it been eye-opening. Given the nature of my Master’s theses, I had already known some of the main bullet points of what’s happening in Palestine, but Khalidi goes into greater detail of how Israel took over Palestine. And while it is a dense read in the sense that there’s a lot of information, Khalidi has made it feel less academic, as if you were having an informal conversation with one of your professors over drinks after the last class of the semester. Heartfelt, but thorough, and an essential read for anyone who’s trying to learn more about Palestine.
While Khalidi does a fantastic job of painting the socio-political landscape throughout the last century, I recently came across a novel that, while the characters themselves are fictional, has provided a palpable narrative context for the apartheid in Palestine: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. Her storytelling is wonderful and while the story is set in one point in time right now, there are allusions to future events. For someone who defaults to non-linear ways of writing, I’m looking forward to the rest of this novel.
And of course, the more I read, the more I become inspired for my own projects – novels, podcasts, comics, etc. This in turn fuels the desire to quit regular jobs and become a full-time content creator, which is incredibly unwise given the current political and economic turmoil. But it is still my long-term goal. If you’d like to support this goal tangibly, hop over to my Ko-Fi page where you can buy me a coffee.
Lastly, in light of the on-going genocide in Palestine, many content creators are advocating for Palestinians who are trying to raise funds to survive. Someone I know in my real life runs his own falafel place and we’ve been going to for years, but only found out a few months ago that he is from Palestine. His name is Samir, and he has several family members still in Gaza who are all trying to get out. So far as I know, they’ve all been able to survive the bombings. But the longer these goals go unmet, the worse the odds get. Please consider helping out Samir if you can.
That’s all that’s in the bag this week. Thanks for reading.
Scribal Practices 