The Seventh Wave deepens its commitment to and solidarity with oppressed, occupied, and marginalized people and communities worldwide. We feel, and fear, for our Jewish, Muslim, and Arab contributors as we watch, in real time, the surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia around the world — just as we have feared for our Black, Indigenous, Asian, diasporic, queer, and trans contributors, and contributors of all marginalized identities. We will continue to dedicate resources toward collective healing and solidarity. Below are a few resources, which we will continue to add to:

• Act. For those looking for concrete actions, a few places to donate: Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF, UNRWA, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Call or email your representatives in Congress via Jewish Voice for Peace. Demand a ceasefire and immediate de-escalation. Find a protest near you and show solidarity at this time of global reckoning. There is also a national march on Washington taking place on November 4 at Freedom Plaza.
• Sign. Join the Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), an ad hoc coalition of writers, editors, and other culture workers modeled on American Writers Against the War in Vietnam, an organization founded in 1965, or Writers in Solidarity with Palestine, a coalition of writers who have put forth several calls to action for writers and their institutions.
• Read. We’ll be sharing resources that we’ve created for writers, artists, and activists — like this list of 25 questions for unanswerable times — as well as resources that others have created — this resource list put together by the Palestinian Youth Movement, this reading list from Verso Books, this prayer for Gaza by Elena Dudum published in The Offing, or this NYT piece asking why Palestinians still need to audition for our empathy, by Hala Alyan — to uplift the voices of those who have long been doing the work. A few incredible pieces by writers writing about the times:
  • Fady Joudah’s “A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation” for Literary Hub
  • Kimberly Rooney and Saba Keramati’s “Why are newsrooms manufacturing consent for Palestinian genocide?” for Prism
  • Mosab Abu Toha’s “Gazan Family Letters, 2092” for The Nation
  • Hala Alyan and Talal Alyan’s Palestinian reading list for Electric Literature
  • Saree Makdisi’s “No Human Being Can Exist” for n+1
  • Anne Boyer’s resignation from The New York Times Magazine
  • Staff editorial from the Los Angeles Times
  • Siham Inshassi’s “Coming Out of the Palestinian Closet” for AAWW (from the archives)

• Write. Starting on Sunday, Nov. 12, The Seventh Wave will be holding space for community write-ins for folks who want to create alongside others during this tumultuous time. This will be a largely silent Zoom space for folks to be in community together while they write, with an optional time held at the end for resource sharing, decompression, and witness. Keep an eye out for our link to register to join in the coming days.
• Create. We have always viewed art — the practice, creation, and community of it — as a form of response. As a way to advocate for and demand change. Our call for submissions for Issue 17: “The Cost of Waiting,” is now open, and as always, our calls speak to the most pressing issues of our times. We have always been dedicated to uplifting marginalized creators, and to championing perspectives and voices that have too often been silenced or sidelined. If something in this call resonates with you, we want to hear from you.

*

As words are what hold us together in space and time, we’ll end with a quote from Palestinian-American writer Hala Alyan, whom we interviewed in 2020 about her book, The Arsonists’ City. Our interviews editor asked Hala what she thought about the phrase “rebellious joy,” which was the topic for our issue at that time, and this is what she said:

We are living between the insufficiency and violence of language.

Still, words matter.

Because in a single word is a world: a name, a land, a future, a home. When you string enough words together, you create a narrative. And so we know this intimately, too: narratives matter, especially the ones that are being silenced, oppressed, and erased. As we’ve seen time and again and today, narrative is the foundation — a political prerequisite — for war and genocide. No violence occurs in a vacuum.

Like many others, we are feeling the shared outrage of this moment, and we are at a loss for how to understand the magnitude of death we’re currently witnessing. It should not be a partisan stance to grieve the loss of life: grief has no boundaries. And so we say: Ceasefire now. Stop the genocide of Palestinian people. If this moment doesn’t teach us how interrelated our global suffering is, how intertwined our struggles are and continue to be, then we are not listening, and we will never learn.

We cannot turn away. In unanswerable times like these, we at The Seventh Wave are leaning into our practice of deep questioning to critically reconsider narratives that are being created in real time. As a BIPOC- and queer-led literary arts nonprofit founded on the idea that genuine dialogue has the potential to shift cultural paradigms, we have always traded in question. To us, that means acting from a place of nuance, and in exchange, offering space for mistakes, vulnerability, and growth. We are not naive: nuance will not stop the genocide happening in Gaza. Nor will it ever feel big enough to contain the devastation of the October 7th attack in Israel. But nuance is art, art is political, and politics is where we wake up.

Our work is in continuing to question dominant narratives. To bear witness to what is happening and to create art and story from our disparate perspectives. To hold history accountable.

*

The Seventh Wave deepens its commitment to and solidarity with oppressed, occupied, and marginalized people and communities worldwide. We feel, and fear, for our Jewish, Muslim, and Arab contributors as we watch, in real time, the surge in antisemitism and Islamophobia around the world — just as we have feared for our Black, Indigenous, Asian, diasporic, queer, and trans contributors, and contributors of all marginalized identities.

We will continue to dedicate resources toward collective healing and solidarity. Tap here to see our list of actionable resources, which we will continue to add to.

*

As words are what hold us together in space and time, we’ll end with a quote from Palestinian-American writer Hala Alyan, whom we interviewed in 2020 about her book, The Arsonists’ City. Our interviews editor asked Hala what she thought about the phrase “rebellious joy,” which was the topic for our issue at that time, and this is what she said:

In times of speechlessness — when either words don’t feel sufficient, accessible, helpful, or possible — we at The Seventh Wave have always turned to questions. Below are 25 questions that we’ve pulled from our past eight years, spanning calls from 16 issues and inspiring writing and art from hundreds of contributors. We have always endeavored to ask questions that are both timely and timeless, and these 25 in particular feel like they speak to this moment. Consider these questions as prompts for critical thought or even questions to help spark more words and conversations as we continue to navigate these tumultuous times, together.

*

1. How do we do things not in spite of but alongside — in relation to — everything that is happening around us? (Issue 16: Proximities)
2. How do we determine what is worth giving our attention to; how will this shape our future? (Issue 16: Proximities)
3. What are we as humans surrounded by — do we choose to surround ourselves with — and how do we situate ourselves within language? What power does this positioning bestow? (Issue 16: Proximities)
4. What truths have you unearthed beneath the falsitudes, and how is what is real related to what’s possible? (Issue 15: Root Systems)
5. What are the institutions — family, religion, education, and beyond — that dictate your understanding of the world, and where do you locate the sting of disillusionment? (Issue 15: Root Systems)
6. As writers and artists, our medium is quite literally the message, so how can we hone a deeper awareness of what that very language has worked to conceal? (Issue 15: Root Systems)
7. How can we construct a society that implores us to take care of one another above all else? (Issue 14: Economies of Harm)
8. When we scrape away the excess of our personal and professional relationships, our roles and our obligations, what is at the core of who we are and what we value? (Issue 13: Rebellious Joy)
9. How we can make room for a wider form of story? (Issue 11: Actionable Storytelling)
10. How do we encourage critical thought around stories that may have once seemed heroic, but are actually harmful? (Issue 11: Actionable Storytelling)
11. How can we learn from moments of failing so that our anger, grief, and shame can propel us toward conversations and healing? (Issue 10: Willful Innocence)
12. What does forgiveness look like from where you hurt? (Issue 10: Willful Innocence)
13. What role do apologies have in our individual and collective endeavors toward progress, toward both being and doing better? (Issue 10: Willful Innocence)
14. How has our inaction caused hurt? (Issue 10: Willful Innocence)
15. What do we value and how do we place value in this country and within each other? (Issue 9: What We Lose)
16. Is there such a thing as a compromise that is fair to all? (Issue 9: What We Lose)
17. Is there a power that is ever responsible? (Issue 8: Power And)
18. How do we tackle conflicts of belief, and make the best use of them as a tool for understanding? (Issue 7: In Opposition)
19. Why do we reject bodies in danger? (Issue 6: Dangerous Bodies)
20. Who can we trust to tell us when, where, and how we are safe? (Issue 6: Dangerous Bodies)
21. What is the role of art, and the responsibility of storytelling? (Issue 5: Artificial Realities)
22. Can we utilize technology to examine the truth, expose falsehoods, and hold power accountable? (Issue 5: Artificial Realities)
23. Why belong? What is worth belonging to? (Issue 3: Who Gets to Belong?)
24. What have you recorded during this time, and what are you trying to forget? (Issue 13: Rebellious Joy)
25. What do the questions you ask yourself, in turn, demand of those around you? (Issue 13: Rebellious Joy)