Call to Action

Our democracy is at stake in this election.  As writers and citizens, we cannot stand by.  Please join us in the battle of our lives.

  1. Register to vote and then vote in local as well as national elections.  Urge everyone you know to exercise this precious right.

  2. Volunteer to serve as a poll worker at your local precinct.

  3. Join Writers for Democratic Action.  We’ll keep you informed of specific campaigns and opportunities to volunteer locally.

  4. Don’t have a state WDA chapter?  Form one.  Contact us, we’ll get you started. 

Please join Writers for Democratic Action

for a Post-Election Event with EJ Dionne

in conversation with Jo-Ann Mort

For more information on the event and speakers, click here.

WATCH THE REPLAY.

With warmest thanks to our partner, Books & Books, for hosting!

A New Plot for America

October, 2024

Join WDA for the 1936 play “It Can’t Happen Here” adapted for our times. . .

DEMOCRACY BOOK CLUB

Join Us for an Evening with. . .

NANCY ROSENBLUM & RUSSELL MUIRHEAD

in conversation with

James Carroll

discussing

 UNGOVERNING:
The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos 

Tuesday, September 17
6:30pm ET / 5:30pm CT

Our thanks to The Charles Hotel — Harvard Square, Harvard Book Store, and Books & Books for hosting!

Democracy Crumbling in Venezuela

WDA stands fiercely in support of democracy everywhere. Venezuelans have lost their right to a fair election and democracy hangs in the balance.

Read WDA steering committee member and proud Venezuelan Bella Rotker’s full statement here.

Call To Action

Now is the time to keep your eyes on Venezuela.

  1. Write to your elected officials to demand they work towards transparency in Venezuela and at home.

  2. Talk to those around you. Keep the conversation going in your community and beyond. The United States and its allies must show the dictatorship we are not turning our backs on corruption.

  3. Advocate for transparency in local and national offices and vote for democracy. We cannot let this happen here.

  4. Do not turn away. Do not forget the struggle for democracy reaches beyond our own borders. Keep talking about Venezuela and every other place democracy is being threatened.

Current Affairs

In this moment of devastation and suffering in Israel and Gaza, we turn, for words, to the voices of Israeli and Palestinian poets. . .

YEHUDA AMICHAI

Source: The Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2015). Poetry Foundation.

Source: The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (© 2013, Hana Amichai & Chana Bloch, reprinted in Houston’s Favorite Poems, Calypso Editions, 2018, with permission of U California Press).

“Wild Peace”: Yehuda Amichai’s Opinion piece in response to the New York Times, December 9, 1994.

MAHMOUD DARWISH

Source: Unfortunately, It Was Paradise (University of California Press, 2003), Academy of American Poets.

Source: The Butterfly’s Burden (Copper Canyon Press, 2007), Poetry Foundation

“Who Am I Without Exile”: An Essay on Mahmoud Darwish by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha in Volume IX of the Arrowsmith Journal.

A Tribute to MOSAB ABU TOHA

Source: Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza (City Lights , 2022) ; Recipient of the Palestine Book Award & the American Book Award; Poetry Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award; and most recently the recipient of the 2022 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry (Arrowsmith Press). Poetry (March 2021)

from the Gaza Notebooks (2021-2023)

 My two eyes, when closed,

each see different things:

One me leaving Gaza in peace,

in one piece,

one me getting jailed at the Erez crossing point.

                                                  My head: a confused old TV channel

                                                        picking up crossed signals. . .

Los Angeles Review of Books

November 21, 2023