being human during genocide.

+ a mini-review of TOO MUCH, the new Melissa Febos, & more lists, links, recs! <3

It’s gauche to sound eager for money, but talking about money and class is also really important, so let me say this: I do not receive a paycheck in July or August. My adjunct teaching money will begin in September, so until then I am living on Substack income and some side hustles. I only ask for $33 for access to all newsletter content, though that price will be increasing soon. If you are a lucky one with a stable economic situation and get something out of my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. (Though, if you have extra money to spare and you haven’t given money to Palestine, do that first.) Now that book stuff isn’t as urgent, there will be more ~content~! Thank you for considering! <3

Dear friends, 

Gaza is being starved and still this week I was overwhelmed with the muck of my days in a country spared from bombs, with a grocery store just a few blocks away. If it means anything at all, the muck of my days is not particularly ordinary. I am navigating a situation that has waffled between stable and out-of-control and it’s taken a toll on me for years. Yes, this is vague and it’ll stay that way for now, but all I mean to say is that some of life juxtaposed to genocide feels absolutely meaningless, but other parts of life remind you of the tremendous pain we can experience as humans even in a country that is spared from bombs, with a grocery store just a few blocks away. It is important to me to think of the people of Gaza not just as victims of genocide, but as people who are victims of a genocide while also navigating the sometimes tremendous pain of being human. Surely in Gaza too people are managing interpersonal distress—whether in the form of heartbreak, mental illness, addiction, or any other number of banal and horrific possibilities of a life that involves, blessedly, relationships with other people. 

So what do I do now that I have named the genocide and cryptically alluded to a thing I won’t be writing about any more? Shall I tell you about the meaningless (ish) things? The lighter distractions, and even the joys, that persist? I don’t know what we’re meant to do while an entire people starve to death. 

But suppose I took the advice of the poets, the healers, the holy books. To do the best I can with what I have with where I’m at. To plant a tree even if the world would end tomorrow. To keep my side of the street clean, to ask “what else is true?” To know that if we cannot stop a genocide, then we can ask what else we might do, we can ask: “how do i re-align my priorities to be the best community member in a time of growing crisis?” 

Maybe now I can share this: I am doing work that I find to be meaningful, even if very difficult, in my community, and I think it’s miraculous to type that word ‘community’ and feel some real semblance of it. That is a bit of how I am trying to do right by the poets and the healers and the holy books. By not giving up on connection even when it feels impossible. 

Here’s another bit: the press that is publishing my next book gave me the tough news that they’d have to push back my publication date. I was really hoping for a Fall 2026, but it’ll now be Winter ‘26 or maybe even Spring ‘27. This deflated me for about a day—during which I beat myself up for not getting them a draft in April, which likely would have guaranteed me the 2026 release—but I’m feeling okay again and taking advantage of the extended time I’ll have to make substantial edits (and updates….the news cycle’s relevance to a book about cultural responses to sexual violence and sexual pleasure is mercilessly ongoing). 

One more: we are moving and it feels huge. I am scared and excited to tell you all about where I’m headed next. Stay tuned. 

Below! A reading roundup from the past few weeks (it’s been a bit since I sent out the curated list, apologies), including: a sex worker and (separately) trafficking victim on the Diddy trial, a beautiful and painful essay about the emotional rollercoaster of fibroid treatment, a piece on the Zoomer sex recession, my thoughts on the latest Melissa Febos, & more. + A music tip for people who like beautiful kitchens. + A mini-review of the new Lena Dunham show, Too Much. & a long list of things that have brought me joy, kept me grounded, kept me going. 

love & solidarity,

raechel 

Reading + Podcasts.