#guernica magazine

[eretzyisrael]

JTA and Andrew Lapin

Almost as soon as the piece appeared online, it began drawing criticism from within the Guernica staff. Founded in 2004 partly in response to the Iraq War and named after Pablo Picasso's famous anti-war painting, the nonprofit magazine has long married literary bona fides and left-wing politics.

Joshua Gutterman Tranen, an anti-Zionist Jewish writer who has published in Guernica in the past, specifically pointed out a passage he found objectionable in which Chen briefly pauses her volunteer work after October 7, writing, "How could I continue after Hamas had massacred and kidnapped so many civilians, including Road to Recovery members, such as Vivian Silver, a longtime Canadian peace activist? And I have to admit, I was afraid for my own life."

"The moment in the Guernica essay where the Israeli writer – who never considers why Palestinian children don't have access to adequate healthcare b/c of colonization and apartheid – says she has to stop assisting them getting medical support because of 'Hamas,'" Tranen tweeted. "This is genocidal."

Chen's essay is not the first time progressive Jews and Israelis have been condemned for being insufficiently critical of Israel. The official movement to boycott Israel, for example, called for a boycott of Standing Together, an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence group that opposes the war, saying that the group promotes "normalization" of Israel. And when Haymarket Books, a left-wing publisher, recently announced a book co-authored by longtime leaders of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, it drew sharp criticism on Instagram – in part because one author, who supports boycotting Israel, is married to an Israeli and has family members in Israel.

For some Jews who have questioned their place in progressive and literary spaces since October 7, Guernica's retraction offered new evidence of a toxic discourse in which no Israeli or Jew can pass muster.

"THIS is what was beyond the pale? This essay of nuance, lived experiences, fears, hopes, and continuing to strive in her own way for peace?" tweeted Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a historian of modern Israel who has written about her own struggle to sustain her liberal Zionist outlook after the attack, after reading the retracted piece. "Obviously this is just a bigoted decision about an Israeli and Jewish author … This virtual burning of books is bareknuckled antisemitism."

Emily Fox Kaplan, a Jewish writer who had shared the essay before it was retracted, wrote that she saw the criticism of Chen's essay as part of a much wider dynamic.

"The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human," she tweeted. "The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance."

Some non-Jewish writers also lamented the piece's retraction.

Matt Gallagher, a war correspondent who is also a veteran and who opposes the Israel-Hamas war, said his own work had benefited from reading thoughtful authors whose perspectives were different from his own.

"If you want the war in Gaza to end, as I do," he tweeted, "shouting down calm Israeli voices mulling the ruin of it all isn't going to help."

[willywaldo]

A powerful piece by Phil Klay on Guernica's cowardly decision to pull an essay by an Israeli author (without the courtesy of informing her first) because of objections from the magazine's staff and writers.

Klay argues that pulling the piece is a "betrayal of the task of literature, which cannot end wars but can help u see why people wage them, oppose them, or become complicit in them.

"Empathy here does not justify or condemn. Empathy is just a tool. The writer needs it to accurately depict their subject; the peacemaker needs it to be able to trace the possibilities for negotiation; even the soldier needs it to understand his adversary. Before we act, we must see war’s human terrain in all its complexity, no matter how disorienting and painful that might be. Which means seeing Israelis as well as Palestinians—and not simply the mother comforting her children as the bombs fall and the essayist reaching out across the divide, but far harsher and more unsettling perspectives."

[m-c-easton]

Submission Spotlight: Guernica

If you're looking for a lit mag to place short fiction with a slant towards originality (or even weirdness) and a lot of interiority, may I suggest Guernica? They're open now, and there's no fee. Competition is a tough, so send your best! #publishing

As of May 2023, Guernica is currently open for no-fee submissions here (follow their link to create a free Submittable account). Founded in 2004, Guernica publishes poetry, essays, fiction, criticism, and journalism online. Unlike most magazines, it pays contributors rather than staff; in fact, its staff are entirely volunteers. Rather than a university affiliation, the magazine is partnered with…

[fiercynn]

poetry outlets that support a free palestine

after finding out that the poetry foundation/POETRY magazine pulled a piece that discussed anti-zionism because they "don't want to pick a side" during the current genocide, i decided to put together a list of online outlets who are explicitly in solidarity with palestine where you can read (english-language) poetry, including, except where otherwise stated, by palestinian poets!

my criteria for this is not simply that they have published palestinian poets or pro-palestine statements in the past; i only chose outlets that, since october 7, 2023, have done one of the following:

published a solidarity statement against israeli occupation & genocide

signed onto the open letter for writers against the war on gaza and/or the open letter boycotting the poetry foundation

published content that is explicitly pro-palestine or anti-zionist, including poetry that explicitly deals with israeli occupation & genocide

shared posts that are pro-palestine on their social media accounts

fyi this is undoubtedly a very small sample. also some of these sites primarily feature nonfiction or short stories, but they do all publish poetry.

outlets that focus entirely on palestinian or SWANA (southwest asia and north africa) literature

we are not numbers, a palestinian youth-led project to write about palestinian lives

arab lit, a magazine for arabic literature in translation that is run by a crowd-funded collective

sumuo, an arab magazine, platform, and community (they appear to have a forthcoming palestine special print issue edited by leena aboutaleb and zaina alsous)

mizna, a platform for contemporary SWANA (southwest asian & north africa) lit, film, and art

the markaz review, a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater middle east and communities in diaspora

online magazines who have published special issues of all palestinian writers (and all of them publish palestinian poets in their regular issues too)

fiyah literary magazine in december 2021, edited by nadia shammas and summer farah (if you have $6 usd to spare, proceeds from the e-book go to medical aid for palestinians)

strange horizons in march 2021, edited by rasha abdulhadi

the baffler in june 2021, curated by poet/translators fady joudah & lena khalaf tuffaha

the markaz review has two palestine-specific issues, on gaza and on palestinians in israel, currently free to download

literary hub featured palestinian poets in 2018 for the anniversary of the 1948 nakba

adi magazine, who have shifted their current (october 2023) issue to be all palestinian writers

outlets that generally seem to be pro-palestine/publish pro-palestine pieces and palestinian poetry

protean magazine (here's their solidarity statement)

poetry online (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers)

sundog lit (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers through december 1, 2023)

guernica magazine (here's a twitter thread of palestinian poetry they've published) guernica ended up publishing a zionist piece so fuck them too

split this rock (here's their solidarity statement)

the margins by the asian-american writers' workshop

the offing magazine

rusted radishes

voicemail poems

jewish currents

the drift magazine

asymptote

the poetry project

ctrl + v journal

the funambulist magazine

n+1 magazine (signed onto the open letter and they have many pro-palestine articles, but i'm not sure if they have published palestinian poets specifically)

hammer & hope (signed onto the letter but they are a new magazine only on their second issue and don't appear to have published any palestinian poets yet)

if you know others, please add them on!

[soracities]

where do you find articles or personal essays to read? and also do you have any favorite sources for news? i want to read more but i’m having a difficult time finding sources 🤍

I've answered this just recently but here's a more complete list for essays from places I visit most often (favourites are marked **)

LitHub**

Electric Literature**

Guernica Magazine**

Hazlitt**

Longreads**

Pangyrus

The Dial**

Bloodknife**

Aeon **

The Marginalian**

Asymptote Journal

N+1

Nautilus**

Quanta Magazine**

The Believer

Ordinary Plots**

The Point Magazine

The Baffler

Paris Review (Redux newsletter is good for things usu behind the paywall)

The New Yorker

The Artifice

The Collector

The Rumpus

Catapult

Tin House Archives (the online section is no longer running but past publications are still available)

Additionally, highly recommend switching to Mozilla Firefox and trying the "Pocket" feature on their homepage: it collects links to articles across the web on topics that are either trending or based on the Pocket suggestions you usually click on. I'm on private browser 99% of the time but there's still 2 or 3 articles at least that I'm always interested in and I love it!

Some other places I read things: Poets&Writers, Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, The Independent, New Scientist, Al Jazeera, The Atlantic, BBC, National Geographic, Wired, NY Times, GQ, NPR, The Irish Times / Independent, etc., I don't have favourite news sources as a rule since I usually read 2 or 3 articles on the same topic from different places depending on what it is (I don't like relying on single sources). But on the whole this covers most of what cross my orbit unless I'm looking for something specifically 💗

[kitchen-light]

With me, I can pretty quickly hear whether there is a thing that is alive inside the poem. But for me, if that thing that’s alive in some poems isn’t there, there’s nothing I can do to make it come forward, you know? Some poems have life, and some just don’t. Sometimes it’s an ostrich, and sometimes it’s a cinder block, and no matter what I do I can’t make a cinder block be an ostrich.

Heather Christle, from “Back Draft: Heather Christle”, published in Guernica Magazine, July 11, 2018

[the-cute-master]

🍌 A bit about me

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ★ · Hi! You can call me by my full username, a shortened version (I usually go by "Master" in SPANISH speaking online communities, but I know it may sound a bit weirder to do so in english lol), Lou, Fran, or Franz. I don't have a preference tbh ★ · Any pronouns are fine | ESL, native language is spanish | Mid 20s | Pls no minors | Not into nsfw as I used to, but warning for possible slight nsfw just in case | May post/reblog some slighty gory art from time to time · ★ {🍌} · Some general interests of mine (in no particular order - not into all of these to the same degree):

★ · HxH, Umineko, Ciconia, Fate/Zero, Fate/GO (sadly don't have enough time to play fgo currently), MLP, Homestuck, Ranfren, BL/GL, Danganronpa, Furry, Vocaloid, Oney (didnt know where to include this one), Parappa, Kaiji, Hellsing, DMMd, BL/GL, Houseki no Kuni, Sonic, Lobotomy Corp, Library of Ruina, Osu!, Age of Empires ★ · Prog rock, psychedelic rock, folk rock/metal, Frank Zappa, Genesis, ELP, Jun Togawa/YAPOOS/Guernica, Diamanda Galás, Nina Hagen, Marina, Björk, SOAD, Equilibrium, MSI, Hole, Lemon Demon, Oingo Boingo, metal in general, new wave in general, very into singers who do weird experimental shit with their voices, 70s/80s/90s music in general ★ · Drawing/art, synthesizers, singing, mechanics/electronics/robotics, analog technology, biology, insects, classic/vintage/old cars, architecture, DnD, board games, collecting things in general (toys, cds, magazines, etc), a bit into Warhammer i guess, model building I will try to keep this more or less updated · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ★ ★ ★

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Elizabeth Lo!

"Elizabeth Lo is an award-winning nonfiction filmmaker who is interested in finding new, aesthetic ways of exploring the boundaries between species, class, and unequal states of personhood."

Learn more on Elizabeth Lo's website.

Stray (2020)

"I think that, on some level, the film is indeed trying to channel this immigrant experience, the feeling of being an outsider. I showed the film in China once, and someone asked me why I like to occupy this outsider’s perspective. They very astutely pointed out that because I grew up in Hong Kong, culturally American with a Chinese-American mother, and later moved to America, I’m familiar with this experience of being an outsider. And yes, that’s probably why I’m drawn to the outsider’s gaze. Being a foreigner in Turkey was a very comfortable position for me." Read more in Guernica Magazine's Elizabeth Lo: “Like the dogs, I existed in a limbo where I wasn’t entirely part of human society.”

Bisonhead (2016)

“A quietly devastating glimpse into the modern indigenous struggle, focused just as intently on the snowy land and sturdy bison, as it is on the faces of the native tribe. Rendered with a non-showy compassion, director Elizabeth Lo pairs poetic visuals of Yellowstone with a haunting wind-swept soundscape to gracefully document the gutted native culture attempting to persevere.” (No Budge)

Hotel 22 (2014)

"The metallic bus railings and seats generate a neon, blue-ish hue and give the film a sci-fi feel. But this is not a work of fiction, instead it’s the grim reality that many Bay Area homeless persons face each night." Read more in The Independent Magazine.

Explore Lo's filmography on MUBI:

[kvothes]

happy day eight of 🌷national poetry month!🌷 seeing a poem through the stages of its revision can tell you a lot about how and why the poet made the decisions that they did. luckily for us, guernica magazine has an interview series where they do just that! as part of the back draft, poets give the first and final draft of a poem and talk about how it changed.

each poem has a little slider you can move with your finger to see the two versions of the poem. here are some of my favorites:

emily wilson on translating the odyssey

danez smith on titles (and this poem Kills Me)

ada limón (US poet laureate!) on a poem’s core

[thehorrortree]

Deadline: July 1st, 2024 Payment: Contributor's Copy Theme: Speculative poems and micro-prose (300 words max.) engaging with themes of environmentalism, climate change, technology, and more through a lens of Midwestern experience. Middle West Press LLC, an independent micro-publisher based in Central Iowa, has issued a call for human-generated poems and micro-prose (300 words max.) engaging with themes of environmentalism, climate change, technology, and more through a lens of Midwestern experience. The working title of this project is Midwest Futures: Poems from Tomorrow's Heartland. Deadline for submissions is Jul. 1, 2024. Publication is projected for Spring/Summer 2025. Submit via Submittable here at this link. This is explicitly a speculative poetry (and related micro-flash-prose) market. We are interested not only in the gritty and grounded, but also near-future science-fiction-infused visions of the possible. For inspirations and vibes, see also movements such “Solarpunk,” “Eco-modernism” and “Climate Fiction” (“Cli-Fi”), as well as these potential exemplars of eco-poetry and other writing: Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota: Poems by Amelia Gorman “Botanical Fanaticism” and “Interpretation of a Poem by Frost” by Thylias Moss “8 Black Eco-Poets Who Inspire Us” - Sierra magazine “Five Indigenous Poets Explore Loss and Love of their Native Lands” - Natural Resource Defense Council Forever War by Kate Gaskin “Imagining the Future of Phoenix” - Arizona State University climate-writing exercise Special “Cli-Fi” issue of Guernica magazine Flyway: Journal of Writing and the Environment While we envision the Middle West as a renewing, evolving, and complicated place, but we are also not blind to the social and environmental challenges we face. We want to illuminate real-world problems specific to the region, including but not limited to climate change, racism, water quality, aging populations, rural/urban divide, and healthcare deserts. We want to imaginatively celebrate new possibilities, solutions, and futures. As with previous Middle West Projects, we hope to publish work that intersects in some way with the people, places, nature, and history of the terrains and cultures we inhabit, especially works stemming from the lived experiences of women, youth, poets of color, poets who identify as LGBTQ+, military veterans, and other marginalized voices. Our informal rule-of-thumb is that the modern U.S. states carved from the Louisiana Purchase, and/or states located west of the Ohio River and east of the Missouri River, safely define our intellectual playground. The Middle West is a moveable feast, however. We recognize that the “Middle West” includes themes, characters, and geographies that cannot be contained by mere borders. In fact, the Middle West may be most apparent in places where it is not—or when viewed and experienced by geographic “outsiders.” Editors of the project write: Our intent with this project is to have fun, but also to illuminate, interrogate, and challenge (via the still-human domain of poetry!!!) the ways people think about place, people, and culture. We are looking for terrain-shifting, mind's-eye-bending, firmament-rending expressions of new and future realities. Be provocative. Be poignant. Be human. Even if you write like a Giant Robot Tractor. Ideally, many of the works submitted will engage questions such as: How could we change the ways we build, grow, live, work, and travel on the land? What would be the results? How could we change the ways we interact with and honor the land (and our predecessors, ancestors, and neighbors), toward visions of a "new" Midwest? In creating and crafting their own original concepts and works, contributors might consider various modes of commenting, observing, or even inhabiting technologies, histories, mythologies, or Midwestern stories depicted in popular culture. Consider, for example: Starship captain James T. Kirk will be born in Riverside, Iowa.

Paul Bunyan’s companion blue ox Babe is likely the result of genetic engineering. The first binary electronic digital calculating device was constructed at Iowa State University. It was not powered by corn. George Washington Carver both attended and later taught at Iowa State University. What futures did he imagine? There are 15 nuclear power plants & unknown number of kaiju located in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Giant. Robot. Tractors. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Deadline for submissions is Jul. 1, 2024. Notifications will be sent not later than Nov. 4, 2024. Target publication date for this project is Spring/Summer 2025. Submit from 1 to 3 poems in the same file (.DOC or .DOCX). Work generated using ChatGPT and similar computer-assisted word "AI" will NOT be accepted. Human-generated poems only, please. New and original work is preferred. Please note in cover letter whether specific works have previously been published elsewhere. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify the editors via Submittable if one of more poems becomes unavailable during the consideration period. Publisher requests non-exclusive, worldwide, English-language print and e-book anthology rights. Contributors will receive one complimentary print or digital (where postal delivery is not available) contributor's copy. Via: Middle West Press.

[goneprophet]

Ocean Vuong for Guernica Magazine: I Remember Anyway

[catrocketship]

Jeanne Mammen 1890-1976

“I have always wanted to be just a pair of eyes, walking through the world unseen, only to see others.” Such was the desire of German artist Jeanne Mammen, an artist whose tumultuous life demands documentation. Born November 21, 1890 in Berlin, Mammen moved shortly thereafter to Paris. She was very much a product of the French culture, showing a strong affinity for Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, and fin de siècle Symbolist art. In 1906, she began her artistic studies at the Académie Julian, one of the few academies that accepted women. In 1908, Mammen left Paris to study in Brussels and from then moved to Rome. After that, she spent some time moving between Paris, Brussels, Rome and Amsterdam. In 1912, Mammen received her first invitation to exhibit with the Indépendents in Brussels, her work of the period marked by the influence of Symbolism, Art Nouveau, and the Decadence Movement. At the onset of the First World War, Mammen’s cosmopolitan lifestyle was disrupted, as her German father was labelled as an enemy of the French. Instead of fleeing to Amsterdam, she and her sister Marie Louise returned to their native Berlin, where Mammen would live until her death. 

 Mammen’s most successful and acclaimed period began, ironically, with abject poverty. Without the resources of her family, she struggled to get by. However, by the early 1920s, Mammen had forged a commercial career for herself, illustrating film posters and satirical and fashion magazines. During this period, she depicted the hedonism of Interwar Germany in watercolour and pencil, imbuing the austere, cynical style of contemporaries Otto Dix and George Grosz, with the warmer style of Lautrec and a uniquely feminine perspective. Unlike her male contemporaries, Mammen depicted the liberated woman not as a sexual object but as an individual with capacity and agency. The women Mammen portrayed with the greatest favour were independent women who chose to live without men. She depicted a range of women; from the independent, erotic flapper to “butch” ones. These women often interacted with each other instead of men; pursuing exclusively female activities. This exclusive depiction of women and their interactions with others, coupled with her illustrations of Berlin’s lesbian bars, have led scholars to postulate that Mammen herself was a lesbian, a rumour never corroborated by the artist herself. 

Mammen’s work of this era is epitomised in her 1928 piece, She Represents, in which she depicts a liberated, androgynous woman enjoying a raucous party in a lesbian bar. She plays on the differences between the central figures; one distinctly butch and the other very feminine. Stylistically, She Represents is far more indebted to the French tradition than the German, especially regarding its gentleness and use of colour. During this period, Mammen was able to satisfy her desire to observe, documenting the reality of her chosen subjects with vitality and nuance. 

Mammen’s life and art were again fundamentally changed in 1933 when the Nazi party assumed power in Germany. The reality of Germany for Mammen was no longer beautiful, and she was repulsed by Nazi interest in realism; prompting her to practice an ‘inner emigration’ and experiment in abstract art. In an act of internal rebellion, Mammen adopted the very art dismissed by the Nazi party as degenerate. Her work during this period was heavily influenced by Picasso’s Guernica, which she saw in 1937. Her piece The Strangling Angel, painted between 1939 and 1942, is clearly influenced by Guernica, but uses an Expressionist palette and does not reference a specific event but rather a general feeling of violence. Although the painting is technically satisfactory; it is devoid of the personality and allure of her earlier pieces, existing in complete opposition to them. In the Post-War period, Mammen experimented with sculpture, reacting to the material insecurity of the period in her use of waste materials like wire, cardboard, and string from American care packages. The faces of her sculptures refer to African sculpture. She also experimented with collages that bore the influence of Miró and Pollock alike.

In the final period of her life (1960-1975), Mammen continued to experiment, her style of the period marked by a lack of commitment to a particular style. She withdrew from society again, sequestered in the same Berlin apartment that she bought with her sister decades earlier. During this period, Mammen frequently used mystical symbols and became obsessed with the colour white. Her work attracted the attention of art historians in the early 1970s, shortly before her death in 1975. Although perhaps not terribly well known, Mammen provides a unique perspective on war, gender, and sexuality, responding with a singular adeptness to an incredibly wide range of human experience. 

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

THE GEMS Feat. Former THUNDERMOTHER Members: Record Deal Announced; 'Like A Phoenix' Single To Arrive 'Very Soon'

THE GEMS, the new Swedish rock band featuring former THUNDERMOTHER members Guernica Mancini (vocals),Emlee Johansson (drums) and Mona Lindgren (bass),has signed a worldwide deal with Napalm Records. THE GEMS' debut single, "Like A Phoenix", will arrive "very soon," according to a press release.

THE GEMS are currently working hard on finishing their debut album, but will also make time to play their second show ever at the Downtown Riot festival in their hometown of Stockholm this Saturday, May 6.

THE GEMS commented on the signing: "We are so happy and excited to be a part of the Napalm Records family. We feel very confident that Napalm is the perfect label for us to spread our music, and that we will make a great team together and conquer the world!"

Napalm Records CEO Thomas Caser added: "With THE GEMS the name says it all! The musicians are already well-known to every rock fan and we are convinced that we have discovered a new star in the rock scene. We are already looking forward to the first anthems from the Swedes!"

THE GEMS made their live debut on March 22 at Pustervik in Gothenburg, Sweden as the support act for THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA.

THE GEMS see Lindgren returning to her original instrument, the guitar. Playing bass at the Gothenburg show was THE GEMS' friend and collaborator Johan Randén.

Regarding the "Like A Phoenix" single title and how it relates to the trio's sudden and unexpected exit from THUNDERMOTHER, Guernica recently told Germany's Metal Hammer magazine (translated from German): "We wanted a hopeful and positive first single. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. This is how we felt as we struggled through this dark period of our career."

Mancini and Lindgren also noted that THE GEMS' live performances will include material from THUNDERMOTHER's last two albums, 2020's "Heat Wave" and 2022's "Black And Gold", both of which featured songwriting contributions from Guernica and Emlee.

In February, it was announced that Mancini, Johansson and Lindgren were exiting THUNDERMOTHER and would form a new band together. At the same time, guitarist Filippa Nässil revealed that she would continue with a new THUNDERMOTHER lineup featuring singer Linnéa Vikström (THERION, AT THE MOVIES) and returning bassist Majsan Lindberg. Filippa has also since recruited Joan Massing (HONEY CREEK) as THUNDERMOTHER's new drummer.

Mancini, who joined THUNDERMOTHER in 2017, reflected on her split with the band in an interview with Canada's The Metal Voice. Asked when she first had a feeling that things were not as they should be within THUNDERMOTHER, Guernica said: "It's a tough question to answer. I would say like this, that it's never been great for me. And it's been six tough years. But regardless of that, I don't regret anything. I still had amazing experiences with the band. And I wouldn't take anything back, 'cause I've grown and I've become the singer that I am. And there are so many positives to that. So even though it has been a very bumpy ride, I still think that it's been a beautiful ride. Because it does teach you a lot about yourself, and you grow as a human."

She added: "When you go through something that's tough and hard for you, you can either choose to learn from it and try to do something positive with it. And that's kind of what I'm aiming to do for myself."

When asked by host Jimmy Kay if she is saying that she was unhappy for six years, Mancini replied: "Not a hundred percent unhappy. It's been [up and down]. Definitely I've questioned how my dream of doing music and everything that I love so much and hold so dear had to be so tough. But in my mind I've always thought that it's probably the price you pay for getting these experiences or whatever. But I think that it doesn't necessarily have to be that. But like anything in life, nothing is gonna be happy and roses all the time. You go through things. It's normal."

Guernica also addressed the fact that Emlee and Mona both voluntarily left THUNDERMOTHER, once they found out Mancini was being kicked out of the group.

"It does make me feel [good], but I also felt really guilty… I felt guilty because I knew the opportunities that they were giving up because of this, but they had their own reasons," she said. "They did this completely on their own. And the problems that we've had in the band, they're not just something that is between [Filippa] and I; it's something that's been brewing and been there always. So when this happened, they also felt that it was very disrespectful towards them, being that they believed that we were a democracy and that we had a say in these things. She more or less [told] them, 'I wanna do this, and I've already found a new singer.' And that's when Emlee just said, 'I don't wanna play with another singer. And if you're gonna go ahead and do this, I'm gonna leave the band.' And that's what she did. And Mona felt the same way."

Guernica added: "I love [Emlee and Mona], and I'm forever grateful. I wouldn't have expected anything, but I also feel like I'm so blessed. Honestly, I'm so incredibly grateful that they are my new band. And they are the two that I enjoyed working with. And I have so much fun with them. And we already had two songwriting days, and we had just so much fun. And it was drama free. It was just a dream. And it's just, like, this is what a band is supposed to be."

Mancini then clarified: "We've had our differences. If you don't fight with your family and friends, that's kind of weird in itself. And we have. But we always… we say 'sorry', and we move past it. And our relationships always grow stronger and stronger and stronger. And that's, I think, the testament of a real, solid, healthy relationship. And that's how it is with them. So I'm really grateful that we have something and we get to continue playing together."

Guernica previously discussed her departure from THUNDERMOTHER in February in an interview with the "Rock And Roll Geek Show". Regarding how she found out she was being fired from THUNDERMOTHER, Guernica said: "I was blindsided. It's almost like I'm in an episode of fucking 'Survivor'. [Laughs]

"I got an e-mail [letting me know that I was no longer in the band]. I had a feeling it was coming because the week prior, [Filippa] had taken me off all our social media accounts. And I thought we had gotten hacked. I wrote to the group; I was, like, 'Girls, I think we're getting hacked. I can't get into our e-mail or Instagram — none of the accounts.'"

Asked if Filippa had any issues with Guernica's live performance or what she was doing on stage, Mancini said: "No, that's not something that I've… no information that I've received. I think that there's nothing you can complain about my performance or my singing, 'cause I've always brought my 'A game.' And if you have problems with that, I think that's strange, considering that's something that people really enjoy and respect the band for. So I think that would be weird."

Clarifying that the reasons for the split were "a hundred percent personal", Guernica revealed that "a lot of things happened behind my back, and I was the last one to know… Like there were meetings behind my back, trying to convince my fellow bandmates that I'm an awful person, I'm all these things that I'm not."

When interviewer Michael Butler noted that all the girls in THUNDERMOTHER looked like they were getting "along really well" when they were supporting the SCORPIONS on a tour of North America last fall, Guernica said: "I deserve an Oscar nomination for my acting. [Laughs]"

According to Mancini, she is still "really close" to Emlee and Mona. "We're actually really good friends, and that's the best part of my time in THUNDERMOTHER," she said. "Me and Emlee, she's legitimately one of my best friends. And Mona has become a really good friend as well. And we have a mutual respect and similar work ethic and we want the same things. We just work together. I just feel like, if anything, it's really lovely and positive that we have each other and that we all feel the same way and we all have had the same experiences and the reasoning behind not feeling great in the band as it was."

Asked how Emlee and Mona found out Guernica was being fired from THUNDERMOTHER, Mancini said: "[Filippa] had a secret meeting behind my back. She just told the girls, 'I wanna fire Guernica, and I already have a new singer.' And the girls were, like, 'Woah. Hold up. Wait a second. We did not sign up for that. And we thought we were a democracy in this band,' because that's something that we'd been told and that's how we've done everything.' So they were shocked."

In early March, Nässil shared a six-minute video in which she addressed some of the questions surrounding the departures of Mancini, Johansson and Lindgren as well as her decision to carry on with a new lineup. She said in part: "Some stuff you read online and even now in some magazines is true and some stuff has more to it," she explained. "I mean, there's a depth to what happened and it's impossible to read in a few lines or a quote from someone. And I wanna assure you and tell you guys that I did my absolute best to work everything out between the old members. I think we should be conscious in what we're saying and trust that I have done my absolute best for peace, love and rock and roll and I did everything in my power to work it out with the previous bandmembers.

"I would never throw anybody under the bridge. I think that's another private matter. What happened has been behind the curtain, so to speak, so it's not everything that people need to know about or should know about because it's just unnecessary to throw stuff at each other, I think."

"I'm thrilled to have Majsan back, who's done hundreds of shows with me in THUNDERMOTHER. She's the THUNDERMOTHER bass player. And I'm thrilled to have Linnéa Vikström, my friend since many, many years, on vocals. And I can't wait for the future."

Nässil went on to say that all the previously announced THUNDERMOTHER concerts "will happen. Not a single canceled show. Everyone has faith in THUNDERMOTHER and so should you.

"We are super stoked to tour with the SCORPIONS in Europe again and doing our own shows," she added.

Photo credit: Mikael Hultén

[fiercynn]

palestinian poets: george abraham

george abraham (they/he/هو) is a palestinian american poet, performance arist, and writer who was born and raised on unceded timucuan lands (jacksonville, FL). their debut poetry collection birthright (button poetry) won the arab american book award and the big other book award, and was a lambda literary award finalist. he is also the author of the chapbooks al youm and the specimen's apology. their collaborations include co-editing a palestinian poetry anthology with noor hindi (haymarket books, 2025), and a performance art project titled EVE with fargo nissim tbakhi. 

they are a recipient of fellowships from kundiman, the arab american national museum, the boston foundation, the national performance network, and the MAP fund, and more. their writing has appeared in poetry magazine, the nation, the american poetry review, guernica, the baffler, the paris review, mizna, and many other journals and anthologies. a graduate of swarthmore college and harvard university, they have taught at emerson college, and are currently a litowitz MFA+MA candidate in poetry at northwestern university. he is also currently executive editor of the whiting award-winning journal mizna.

you can follow them on twitter @IntifadaBatata.

IF YOU READ JUST ONE POEM BY GEORGE ABRAHAM, MAKE IT THIS ONE

OTHER POEMS ONLINE THAT I LOVE BY GEORGE ABRAHAM

Field Notes on Terror & Beginnings at poetry daily

Love Letter to the Eve of the End of the World at the margins

Of Nation, at rusted radishes: beirut literary and art journal

Searching for a Palestinian After at the nation

Stage Directions for a Representation in which Eve and Adam travel through their first checkpoint at mosaic theatre company

the ghosts of the dead sea are rising at the drift

ars poetica in which every pronoun is FREE PALESTINE at the margins

“from UNIVERSAL THEORY IN WHICH EVERY FAILED ATTEMPT AT LOVE IS A SOULMATE FROM AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE” at fiyah literary magazine

Ode to My Swollen, Mono-Infected Spleen at brooklyn poets

The Olive Tree Speaks of Deforestation to my body at crabfat magazine

arab/queer vs. Imaginary at shade literary arts

self-portrait with second-degree sunburn at

[ summer / winter ] is the worst time to lose a [ country / lover ] at wildness

maqam of moonlight, for the wandering at the rumpus

against perturbation at the scores

apology, at cordite poetry review

i also adore this 2021 essay of abraham's at guernica magazine called teaching poetry in the palestinian apocalypse: towards a collective, lyric "i".

[soracities]

i HAVE to ask, as an essay reading enthusiast, WHERE do you find essays to read?

going through the 'essay' tag on your blog was a time well spend

lit magazines babes!!! Lithub, Electric Lit, Guernica, N+1, Devin Kelly's Ordinary Plots, Longreads, Quanta Magazine, Aeon (my beloved!!), The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings), Nautilus, Poetry Foundation, Paris Review's redux archives!!! i also tend to look up essays / authors mentioned IN the essays I'm reading which also introduces me to new work! hope this helps and happy essay reading anon 🤍