"Coates originally set off to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell's classic Politics and the English Language, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories-our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking-expose and distort our realities. The first of the book's three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist--and named for Nubian pharaoh--Coates...

Profiles Palestinians engaged in creative and productive pursuits in their everyday lives in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Their narratives amplify perspectives and experiences of Palestinians exercising their own constructive agency.

"Quiet orient riot is a book about birth regimes and the politics of reproduction. Tracing the immaculate conception of a child through to her birth, it unspools the many ways that liturgical commands and an intense demographic anxiety affect a journey towards motherhood. What does it mean to bear a Palestinian child in the occupied Palestinian territory, enabled through contingent access to Israel's sophisticated fertility treatment infrastructure?...

"For much of her life--like many Westerners--most of what Pamela Olson knew of the Middle East was informed by headlines and stereotypes. But when she traveled to Palestine in 2003, she found herself thrown with dizzying speed into the realities of Palestinian life. Fast Times in Palestine is Olson's powerful, deeply moving account of life in Palestine--both the daily events that are universal to us all (house parties, concerts, barbecues, and weddings)...