Alaa is haunted by his grandmother’s memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland after the Nakba. Ariel, Alaa’s neighbour and friend, is a liberal Zionist, critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza yet faithful to the project of Israel. When he wakes up one morning to find that all Palestinians have suddenly vanished, Ariel begins searching for clues to the secret of their collective disappearance. That search, and Ariel’s reactions to it, intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question. Between the stories of Alaa and Ariel are the people of Jaffa and Tel Aviv – café patrons, radio commentators, flower-cutters – against whose ordinary lives these fissures and questions play out. Critically acclaimed in Arabic, spare yet evocative, intensely intelligent in its interplay of perspectives, The Book of Disappearance is an unforgettable glimpse into contemporary Palestine as it grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory.

When Monument Eternal was originally published in 1977, Alice Coltrane was living in Southern California and had recently become a swami, building and nurturing an alternative spiritual community. In these pages, she says that the book is “based upon the soul’s realizations in Absolute Consciousness and its spiritual relationships with the Supreme One.” Monument Eternal offers deep insight into Coltrane’s tremendous musical output, and shines a light on her transformation from Alice McLeod, Detroit church organist and bebopper, to sage thought leader Swami Turiyasangitananda. It also reflects the extraordinary fluidity of American religious customs in the mid and late twentieth century.    Akashic’s long-awaited reissue of Monument Eternal includes a new foreword by Ashley Kahn.

Welcome to the fourth edition of Graphème: a collection of scores by composers and artists intent on sharing and collaborating with performers in the realisation of adventurous and creative sonic experiences.The pieces presented in this edition range from simple to complex. Some are more open to freedom of interpretation and some are more specific, but all are offered in the spirit of collaboration with the performer who interprets the work.The scores within this volume draw on compositional concepts that are as varied as they are imaginative. Featuring photo-montage, graphs, illustration, timelines and grids, each piece offers the performer the chance to explore their own interpretation of the structural frameworks suggested by the composer. Representing kaleidoscopic approaches to sound and the gestural organisation of materials, these works, each different in their own way, share a sense of cooperation with the performer, which, while becoming more prevalent in contemporary music, is still quite removed from the more traditional relationship between composer and interpreter.The thematic and timbral materials offered for exploration are a true collage of ideas, motives and themes. They represent a meeting of creative initiations and responses, composed with rigour and, often, humour.Time is also represented in multi-faceted ways, whether linear, spatial or cyclical, offering the performer various ways to navigate the ideas: to overlay concepts of time as well as material, contributing to a kind of open and imaginative expression of time, material and space.Each composer’s score can be seen then, as a starting point, suggesting ways to begin: works unfolding as they are performed — often neither fully concrete, nor free of form or trajectory.Today more than ever it seems we need to reassess what it means to create, to collaborate and to find new ways of working together. These ideas of music composition and performance move towards new models through which we can truly come together as creative forces, not only with reflection and refinement, but also with spontaneity and freedom.The works in this volume, as in the previous three volumes, are here to be performed. Play them, explore them and realise them in any way you find imaginable. We are excited by the possibilities of performers creating a collaborative space between the composer and – in the rendering of these works – with audiences and listeners.

Vulnerability: or why I show my T*ts & c*ck & b*ll’s in my Performances is a new essay by Yvonne LeBien. This essay speaks to the agency of the trans body in public through LeBien’s years of performing naked in the world as a trans woman. In this time of nightmarish evangelical transphobia, Yvonne’s unapologetic rawness is absolutely urgent. As small as it is crucial in the discourse of trans excellence in a climate of fear by the ignorant.  Published 

Imperfect Archiving, Archiving as Practice: The Ethics of the Archive is a special 4th edition of our popular essay printed in conjunction with the opening of Imperfect Archiving/Archiving as Practice a reading room by GenderFail Archive Project at The Center for Book Arts. The exhibition is on view at Center for Book Arts Manhattan location from July 9th- September 18th 2021. This manifesto talks to core of GenderFail collecting and archiving practices that looks to the softness of the collected and archived book as a metaphor for the type of content that are housed within. The GenderFail Archive Project is a socially engaged reading room that looks at archiving as a social activity. The project stems from GenderFail’s desire to share the publications from their personal library and give a platform to other publishers that they cherish. Visit the exhibition page here: https://centerforbookarts.org/genderfail-archive-project-exhibition Along with the essay, this 4th edition features 10 curated GenderFail Archive Project reading lists from my Publishing Now class taught from 2021-2023. In Late 2020 I was offered a teaching position at SMFA, Tufts University to teach a course I designed called “Publishing Now.” For this course I wanted the students to read zines and publications being produced in real time, so I started to digitize my collection. Many of the readings for this course were scanned from my personal collection of over 2,000 zines, artist books and art books that make up the GenderFail archive. Since we were not able to meet in person (due to the pandemic) I spent hours scanning zines and artist books to be used as required readings for the course. Each of the reading lists will accompany a link and QR code to read and engage with each of the publications online.

The Mundus is Norman Pritchard’s magnum opus, a mysterious work that is both visual and poetic, literary and mystical. The work was composed between 1965 until at least July 1971, a six-year period during which the author refined and reworked its pages, seeking out new literary forms alongside personal transcendence. As Pritchard mentions in a letter to Ishmael Reed in 1968, “Literature in and of itself doesn’t seem to have a broad enough scope for me anymore.” Despite its ambitions and grand scope, The Mundus has gone unpublished for over fifty years. Subtitled “a novel with voices,” The Mundus combines Pritchard’s earlier poetic innovations with his growing interest in theosophy, exploring a spiritual terrain he enigmatically dubbed the transreal. Appropriately, this lost masterpiece represents some of Pritchard’s most challenging work, with the text proceeding in small leaps and sublime fractures, stuttering across the page with sonic and visual momentum as it threads through an immersive, textual mist comprised solely of the letter “o”. Pritchard found early success with his books The Matrix and EECCHHOOEESS, experimental texts that, in part, bear the imprint of the avant-garde arts, music, and poetry communities of the late 1960s, in particular the Umbra group, a collective of Black poets of which he was a leading member. But The Mundus finds Pritchard at his most radical and revelatory, putting forth a profound act of negation, while it delves readers into a primordial soundscape populated by language’s essential building blocks. An early pillar of Black poetics and a world unto itself, The Mundus must be sounded out not only with the mind, but also with the mouth, body, and soul.

When he was prevented from guiding a writing workshop, Quim Pujol resorted to collecting exercises for the participants to work with by themselves, either alone or in small groups. These exercises, suggestions and scores draw on a wide variety of sources, such as poetry, experimental literature, dance, popular performance practices, visual art and all kinds of text populating everyday life. Now expanded into a book, they are invitations to read, write and daydream, to ‘complicate our relationship to language’ and imagine texts in multiple guises. Potential literatures that give pause, redirect the attention or, at times, simply ‘produce a comforting doodle in the volatile palimpsest of human flesh’.

Interviews by Alan Licht with Vito Acconci, ANOHNI, Cory Arcangel, Matthew Barney, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, the Dream Syndicate’s Karl Precoda, Richard Foreman, Henry Flynt, Milford Graves, Adris Hoyos, Ken Jacobs, Jutta Koether, Christian Marclay, Phill Niblock, Alessandra Novaga, Tony Oursler, Lou Reed, Kelly Reichardt, The Sea and Cake, Suicide, Michael Snow, Greg Tate, Tom Verlaine, Rudy Wurlitzer, and Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan. Introduction by Jay Sanders. For the past thirty years, Alan Licht has been a performer, programmer, and chronicler of New York’s art and music scenes. His dry wit, deep erudition, and unique perspective—informed by decades of experience as a touring and recording guitarist in the worlds of experimental music and underground rock—have distinguished him as the go-to writer for profiles of adventurous artists across genres. A precocious scholar and improvisor, by the time he graduated from Vassar College in 1990 Licht had already authored important articles on minimalist composers La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, and Charlemagne Palestine, and recorded with luminaries such as Rashied Ali and Thurston Moore. In 1999 he became a regular contributor to the British experimental music magazine theWirewhile continuing to publish in a wide array of periodicals, ranging from the artworld glossies to underground fanzines. Common Tones gathers a selection of never-before-published interviews, many conducted during the writing of Licht’s groundbreaking profiles, alongside extended versions of his celebrated conversations with artists, previously untranscribed public and private exchanges, and new dialogues held on the occasion of this collection. Even Lou Reed, a notoriously difficult interviewee, was impressed. Alan Licht is a writer, musician, and curator based in New York City. He is equally known for his guitar work in the underground rock bands Run On and Love Child and in the experimental groups the Blue Humans and Text of Light. He has released eight solo guitar albums and more than a dozen duo and trio records of improvised music. Licht is a contributing music editor at BOMB magazine and his essays and reviews have appeared in Artforum, Parkett, the Wire,the Believer, Sight & Sound, and many other publications. He is the author ofAn Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn, an extended personal essay about coming of age as a rock fan and musician;Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, the first full-length study of sound installations and sound sculpture to appear in English; and Sound Art Revisited,an updated version of the latter, published last year; and he is a co-author of Will Oldham on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, a collection of interviews with Will Oldham,andTitle TK 2010–2014, a compilation of concert transcriptions, with Cory Arcangel and Howie Chen. Jay Sanders is executive director and chief curator of Artists Space, New York. --- Blank Forms, 2021

‘tendentious | neo-semantics’ is a collection of text-sound pieces by Lily Greenham transcribed and (re)typeset from a previously unpublished edition originally written in 1970. Reproduced and revocalised in dialogue with the Lily Greenham Archive at Goldsmiths, this new edition is bookended by excerpts of contextual writings by Greenham — ‘a few remarks’ (1970 / 71), ‘language and its uses: lingua tongue’ (1972) and a ‘post scriptum’ to the essay ‘lingual music’ (1977) — and also punctuated by ‘aphorisms’ and ‘50 words stories’ as structural beats between semantic poems. A tall format hole-punched insert contains a written remembrance by Larry Wendt and a photograph courtesy of Stephen Ruppenthal. Later in 2024 a vinyl record / catalogue co-published with the Badischer Kunstverein, featuring recordings of vocal performances by Anna Barham and Ute Wassermann, will follow.

Bricks from the Kiln is an independent publisher of books, editions and a somewhat yearly journal. Co-run by Matthew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister between the UK and US, and founded in 2015, its output is largely concerned with explorative yet critically minded forms of writing and language sitting at the intersection of art, design and literature.   Guest edited by artist Helen Marten and literary agent Harriet Moore with Matthew Stuart, this volume of the journal considers what it means for a publication to be an allegorical container. A simple box in which to gather multiple things, an economical set of permutations — rational in one sense, yet defiantly flexible to move. Contributors were approached with an open invitation; some explored the multiplicities of containing or containers, while others filled the printed vessel with their own ongoing preoccupations. The following pages perform as envelope, bag, shell, net, fold, alarm, letter and instruction. There are holes to disappear within; smoke to knot and wind; shadows to unfold — a context that takes in and binds, finding new kinships from unforeseen proximities.

Midcareer Writing is Federico Sargentone’s debut book: a reflective exploration of identity, youth, and cultural narratives. They manifest in various expressions and consumer choices, perpetuating a generational mythology that fuels industries—from fashion, art, and music to media and economics— that continually mine youth culture for economic gain, recycling trends and identities into commodities. IF YOU BUY INTO IT YOU ARE PART OF IT In this collection of selected essays, including both published and original material, the author delves into historical phenomena such as 'Tulipmania' as allegories for the excesses and speculative bubbles of modern consumer culture or touches on the concept of 'ambient' aesthetics, a pervasive influence in the digital age where everything from music to fashion prioritises atmosphere over explicit structure or narrative. AURA IS THE ULTIMATE BRANDING OF OUR GENERATION The Milan-based writer argues that immersive environments and moods replace traditional artistic expression as markers of cultural relevance. Further, he criticises the romanticised image of the writer and intellectual and emphasises the role of 'street intellectuals' - thus organising a virtual reunion between Antonio Gramsci, Dr. Spock, Marshall McLuhan, and Tupac Shakur. And more… A NEW WAY FOR THE OLD GAME! Midcareer Writing offers a critique of how society constructs, commodifies and ultimately consumes cultural identities, suggesting that each generation, while unique, is inextricably linked to broader economic and cultural systems. Including a Bonus Track. Sorry and thank you! 

The Compost Reader series sees the world as an interconnected being, where all its parts relate to one another. Composting as a way of cultivating consciousness through questions instead of answers, and from uncertainty and doubt. Hydro-memories, a talking lion, sounds that live in a snail shell, a dry swamp, a herbal medicine witch girl, ephemeral queer performances, chemical-sensing tentacles, stone eaters, scriptures-fossil, heavy cheese-like lids, dolphins in traffic, blue humanities, and digital forensic public spaces are some of the matters fermenting in this Compost Reader.

In Straight Up, Without Wings, Joe McPhee surveys sixty years in creative music. Starting with his trumpeter-father's influence and formative years in the U.S. Army, McPhee recounts experiences as a Black-hippy-cum-budding-musician based in upstate New York, perched at an ideal distance from Manhattan’s free jazz demimonde of the 1960s and its loft scene of the 1970s. A natural storyteller, revealing never-told tales and reveling in the joys of noise, McPhee puts the influence of – and encounters with – Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler into the context of an independently-minded young player, ravenous for experience, dealing with the crucible of racism, seeking to break out beyond the bounds of a regional Hudson Valley scene that he knows like the back of his hand. The memoir draws forward through thrilling passages in Europe and across the United States, as McPhee gains momentum, as his music becomes the impetus for multiple record labels, as he collaborates with figures from Peter Brötzmann to Pauline Oliveros, and as he eventually goes on to inspire musicians far and wide. Written as an oral history, deftly conducted by Mike Faloon to preserve McPhee’s unique narrative voice, Straight Up, Without Wings includes “reflections” by eight musicians from across the protagonist’s rich history.

The chief aim of the review is to provide a space for critical discussion of, and enthusiasm for, new poetic work published by networks of small presses and/or by poets themselves; with a preference for reviews of work that is particularly ephemeral, hand-made, or limited in circulation. This is in order both to support new work (and poets) and celebrate the communities that make such publica(c)tion possible. Reviews can be academic but do not have to be. Likewise, all other guidelines are to be interpreted freely.  Submissions can be sent to baldanderspress@gmail.com Rolling deadline 

This zine was born out of a conversation on how picture books for children today are mostly generic, introducing fruit, animals or vehicles. What about picture books with nice illustrations for children in Asia ? FOOD&DRINK SINGAPORE is our small attempt at introducing food culture in Singaporeto children—and even adults. The text is by Wee Ling Soh in Singapore and the illustration and design by Takako Masuki of ASIAN FOOD DESIGN.

No Tags is a podcast and newsletter about underground music culture hosted by Tom Lea and Chal Ravens. Designed by All Purpose Studio, this book collects the best interviews and discussions from the first year of No Tags, along with four new essays by some of our favourite writers and thinkers. Featuring: Eris Drew, Simon Reynolds, JK & Bempah, Sorry Records, CCL, Jeff Weiss, lorecore, GG Albuquerque, indie sleaze, Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, Meaghan Garvey, Ray Philp, Jonny Banger, OK Williams, Iglooghost, the sound of Tory Britain, payola, The Large, Gavin Douglas, Marvin Sparks, Dr Robin James, Lena Raine, Midland, Henry Bruce-Jones, Vivian Host, Chris Zaldua, the spirit of 2011, Amy Lamé, the bursting festival bubble and Fish56Octagon.

The Seers follows the first weeks of a homeless Eritrean refugee in London. Set around a foster home in Kilburn and in the squares of Bloomsbury, where its protagonist Hannah sleeps, the novel grapples with how agency is given to the sexual lives of refugees, insisting that the erotic and intimate side of life is as much a part of someone’s story as ‘land and nations’ are. Hannah arrives in London with her mother’s diary, containing a disturbing sexual story taking place in Keren, Eritrea, where the Allies defeated the Italians in the Second World War. In a gripping, continuous paragraph, The Seers moves between the present day and the past to explore intergenerational histories and colonial trauma alongside the psychological and erotic lives of its characters as their identities are shaped, but refused to be suppressed, by the bureaucratic processes of the UK asylum system. 

Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade. Collected here for the first time in English are a selection of his essays, social media posts and interviews from 2011 until the present. He has spent the majority of those years in prison, where many of these pieces were written. Together, they present not only a unique account from the frontline of a decade of global upheaval, but a catalogue of ideas about other futures those upheavals could yet reveal. From theories on technology and history to profound reflections on the meaning of prison, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a book about the importance of ideas, whatever their cost.