Essays, features, poetry, art, interviews & more from Vida Adamczewski, A/Bel Andrade, Amy Berkowitz, Khairani Barokka, Jax Bulstrode, Sarah Courville, Jen Deerinwater , Amy Dickinson, Mizy Judah Clifton, Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Dead Gowns, Sergey Isakov, Theo LeGro, Elias Lowe, Cathleen Luo, Jameisha Prescod, Olivia Spring, Leigh Sugar, Oriele Steiner, Emerson Whitney, Chantal Wnuk, Caroline Wolff, and Emma Yearwood

Designed by Kaiya Waerea
Cover art by Hanna Norberg-Williams
Illustrations by Hanecdote

IN THIS ISSUE: writing on the fragmentation of chronic illness, why ‘full access’ isn’t something arts venues should aim for, the complexities of receiving gender-affirming care while living with chronic illness, the realities of constantly having to ration your energy, an interview with musical artist Dead Gowns, abortion access and bodily autonomy, poetry, artwork, book recommendations, and much more.

For as long as Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. A story of survival, pain and transformation, Sick examines the colossal impact of illness on one woman's life. It is a journey that took Porochista Khakpour from Tehran, the town of her birth, through the major cities of America, the country she came to call home, before she eventually found a diagnosis of late-stage Lyme disease. Sick explores what it means to feel at home in one's body, and also one's country. And what it means not to.

A sensitive and heart warming story of how a little girl in Gaza finds strength and hope through her painting. Sitti's Bird is a unique children’s picture book, written and illustrated by Palestinian artist, Malak Mattar, reflecting her experiences of childhood in Palestine. Malak is a little girl who lives in Gaza with her parents. She goes to school, plays in the ocean, and visits Sitti’s house on Fridays. One day while she is in school, bombings begin. She spends the next 50 days at home with her parents worrying and feeling scared, until one day she picks up her paintbrush … Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story is a unique children’s picture book, written and illustrated by Palestinian artist, Malak Mattar. Reflecting her experiences of childhood in occupied Palestine, Malak’s story brings warmth and wonder to children as it tells of her rebirth as an artist during the 2014 airstrikes on Gaza. It is the story of a young girl whose love for her family and discovery of art help her channel her fears and overcome traumas that few of us can imagine―traumas shared by countless children in Gaza and around the world.

Slavery: The Anglo-American Involvement is less a traditional history book than a documentary in the radio or television sense. Relying entirely on contemporary records and manuscripts, the authors have created a vivid and readable narrative describing the slave trade which lasted almost 400 years and involved ten white nations and hundreds of black tribal rulers. This book concentrates on the roles played by the English and the Americans

Reform or Revolution, also titled Social Reform or Revolution?, is an 1899 pamphlet by Polish-German Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg, in which she argues that trade unions, reformist political parties, and the expansion of social democracy could not create a socialist society as Eduard Bernstein, among others, argued. She contends from a historical materialist perspective that capitalism is economically unsustainable and will eventually collapse and that a revolution is necessary to transform capitalism into socialism. The pamphlet was influential in revolutionary socialist circles and an important precursor to left communist theory.

Rosa Luxemburg's writings reveal one of the most brilliant and passionate minds drawn to the revolutionary socialist movement. Through the letters, pamphlets and theorising, we see an outstanding social and economic theorist, a dedicated political activist and a devoted confidant. Providing an extensive overview of her writings, this volume contains a number of items never before anthologised. Her work was broad in scope tackling capitalism and socialism; globalisation and imperialism; history; war and peace; social struggles, trade unions, political parties; class, gender, race; the interconnection of humanity with the natural environment. The editors provide an extensive and informative introduction outlining and evaluating her life and thought. This is the most comprehensive introduction to the range of Rosa Luxemburg's thought.

At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation, unabridged for the first time, and the first ever direct translation from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.

In Solaris, Kris Kelvin arrives on an orbiting research station to study the remarkable ocean that covers the planet’s surface. But his fellow scientists appear to be losing their grip on reality, plagued by physical manifestations of their repressed memories. When Kelvin’s long-dead wife suddenly reappears, he is forced to confront the pain of his past - while living a future that never was. Can Kelvin unlock the mystery of Solaris? Does he even want to?

Lured South by tales of buried treasure, Milkman embarks on an odyssey back home.

As a boy, Milkman was raised beneath the shadow of a status-obsessed father. As a man, he trails in the fiery wake of a friend bent on racial revenge. Now comes Milkman’s chance to uncover his own path. Along the way, he will lose more than he could have ever imagined. Yet in return, he will discover something far more valuable than gold: his past, his true self, his life-long dream of flight.

‘A complex, wonderfully alive and imaginative story’ Daily Telegraph

‘Song of Solomon…profoundly changed my life’ Marlon James

INTRODUCED BY BOOKER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR MARLON JAMES

**Winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow award for achievement in American fiction**

Prodigiously influential, Jacques Derrida gave rise to a comprehensive rethinking of the basic concepts and categories of Western philosophy in the latter part of the twentieth century, with writings central to our understanding of language, meaning, identity, ethics and values. In 1993, a conference was organized around the question, 'Whither Marxism?’, and Derrida was invited to open the proceedings. His plenary address, 'Specters of Marx', delivered in two parts, forms the basis of this book. Hotly debated when it was first published, a rapidly changing world and world politics have scarcely dented the relevance of this book.