Books: Spring 2024

Even the River Starts Small: A Collection of Stories from the Movement to Stop Line 3

Published by Dio Cramer ’19 and Haze (Emma) Harrison ’21
(Haymarket Books, 2024)

This 300-page collection published by Dio Cramer ’19 and Haze (Emma) Harrison ’21 features anonymous writing, art, and photos spanning nearly a decade, capturing diverse experiences in the grassroots resistance against the tar sands oil pipeline in northern Minnesota. The anthology team began the project in fall 2021. The first edition of the book was distributed for free as a gift to those involved in the resistance. “This was a meaningful way to give back to the diverse community of people involved in the fight and to celebrate the power of storytelling as a way to commemorate social movements,” say Harrison and Cramer. “We were both heavily involved in the movement to stop Line 3 throughout our time at Mac and had the opportunity to translate what we were learning in the classroom about decolonization and grassroots movements into action.”

The Saint of Everything

by Deborah Keenan ’74
(Lynx House Press, 2023)

One of the Old Songs
The guy walked past singing white bird in a golden cage on a winter’s day in the rain. One of the old songs, by the group It’s a Beautiful Day. Whatever songs the radio assigns me, whatever songs strangers sing as they pass me, those are my songs for the day. This is my creed, my gospel, my way of trying to stay in the world I was born into. I sang the song doing the dishes that night, and it felt right singing white bird in a golden cage, on a winter’s day in the rain. It was winter, I was white, as I always would be, I understood myself to be in a golden cage, large enough to live a whole life in. I understood it was a beautiful day, and I lived the song in my body and mind that whole beautiful day.

Global Anti-Asian Racism

Edited by Jennifer Ho
(Columbia University Press, 2024)

Dr. Rivi Handler-Spitz, associate professor and chair of Asian languages and cultures, contributed to Global Anti-Asian Racism, and she also created the book’s cover.

“I’m thrilled to be part of this volume,” she says. “The past several years have seen a sharp uptick in the number and severity of anti-Asian hate crimes. This volume, which brings together the work of scholars in many fields, addresses the history of anti-Asian hate, its root causes, and the resilience of Asian diasporic communities worldwide.”

Her chapter, “Savage Script: How Chinese Writing Became Barbaric,” grew out of her course “The Art of Writing in China.”

“My student, Maya Schaefer-Fiello ’23, did a series of graphic responses that allowed me to appreciate more fully the visual richness of the material,” she says. “The classroom conversations among students also inspired me to return to the material and probe it more deeply.”

Les Hunter ’01, Carolyn M. Dunn, and Eric Micha Holmes, editors.