In March, the Trump administration issued an executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the sole federal agency supporting U.S. libraries and museums. This move jeopardized over $160 million in annual grants that fund essential services such as early literacy programs, high-speed internet access, and telehealth spaces, particularly impacting rural communities.
The publishing and library sectors have condemned this action. The American Library Association (ALA) criticized the decision as a dismissal of the aspirations and needs of millions of Americans, emphasizing the critical role libraries play in providing access to information and supporting community well-being. This showed up on my LinkedIn feed multiple times this week:
I am proud of Penguin, Hachette, Macmillian, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks for standing up.
Although it may take time to see the complete impact of this order, make no mistake, communities, such as the rural one that I live in, will see forced changes as a result. It makes me sad and it makes me angry, and it should make you sad and angry for your community. And if it does, here are some things you can do:
Write your Congress person that you are against this and will not be voting for representatives that do not stand up against the fascists oozing all over the US government right now.
You can support your local libraries by using the library. Bodies in house show a need. Books checked out show a desire (you don’t even have to read the damn book, just check it out). Use their Libby App (named after me, obviously) or Overdrive app to show there is a need for digital library services. Take your kids to storytime. Use the library’s wifi to submit query letters to agents. Use the library printer to print your zine. Help keep these services for people who need them.
I have seen an uptick in people enrolling in my art activism course and I think we all know why. These are scary times for a lot of us. Fascists are coming hard for our rights. If you don’t like protesting out on the streets, there are other ways to support the things you believe in. Write a book against tyranny. Write a poem about injustice. Write an essay about the mental health of young people being exposed to so much hate. I am about to say something super cliché but I am that angry and scared for us – your pen is a sword, you need to wield it right now.
::takes a breath::
After a couple months on Fiverr I have decided that it is a corporate greed monster and will be toning down how much I use it. I would never consider it nor recommend it to you for a long term-main gig. With their 20% cut and the global competition, it just doesn’t seem worth putting that much energy into building a presence on that site. I raised my prices there again today and will raise them once again in May regardless if I “level up” again because I am just not interested in working for under minimum wage, which it seems like Fiverr encourages. When you take breaks they penalize you. When you don't respond to a message within an hour, they penalize you. I get it that they want to keep buyers happy, but their expectations are ridiculous. When you use Fiverr, it seems like you are working for them, not for yourself. What is the point of being a freelancer then?
The last thing I want to be frustrated with today is the lack of risk I have been seeing in Fiction when I am looking for pleasure reading. And a lack of risk can often mean a lack of depth. I want to see more weird in what I read. More unexpected choices.
I understand that a lack of risk, the beats, is EXACTLY what some people read for (I am looking at you romance genre). This knowing is the readers comfort space. What I get from watching Community or Supernatural 100 times, they get from that genre. That knowing. But that is not what I like to read.
Even when I do read romance I need it to go beyond the happily ever after trope (then it’s not really a book in the romance genre, it’s a love story, but without the H.E.A. it’s not a true romance) I want to see what the wanting undoes. What belief do the characters have to let go of to be in that relationship? I need it to go beyond desire. We don’t fall in love cleanly; I knew this long before my stupid divorce, and I need my fiction to reflect that.
So when I say I dislike fiction that’s scared of its own depth, I mean: I am bored with stories that refuse to go down far enough to hit the nerve. I don’t want to read stories that walk right up to the edge of something honest—and then back away because it might make someone uncomfortable. Let it be uncomfortable. Let the character lose something. Let the reader squirm. Let them not see around the bend.
A lot of good activism lit does not back down and that is what I am interested in most right now. Are you writing these books? Am I your ideal reader?
Inspiration:
Need some art activism inspiration? I got a Pinterest board for that.
Recommended Reading:
Christy Tending wrote a good piece called “Writing About Activism Without Doxxing Your Friends”
Lit Agents:
This literary agent is looking for activism lit.
