Book box giveaway for humanitarian aid to Gaza

I reflected on literature and complexity almost every waking moment of my free time on a book tour in Iowa last week, because I was reading from and discussing my novel about queer Palestinians during a time of astonishing violence in and around Gaza. My heart was breaking along with the hearts of so many people I care about.

I keep not finding the right words to simultaneously (1) be the ally my Palestinian and Arab American communities need and (2) also be the friend and supporter that my Jewish friends in solidarity deserve. We are all grieving, angry, and wrestling with old, unspeakable traumas; all of us seeing the people we respect most in our communities wrestle with even greater pain. I’m sure what I’m saying isn’t quite right or quite enough, and if so, please forgive me. I love you all, and this is what I came here to say: Donate $100 to MECA, PCRF, Anera, or UNRWA and get a chance to win six books, including a signed first edition of The Skin and Its Girl.

Organizers and community groups that labor every day to end systemic injustice often see more room, resources, relationships, and ways forward than most people do—and maybe they feel more hopeful because of these nuances. But for everyday folks not elbows-deep in the work, the U.S. is an impossibly hard place to talk about Palestinian history, let alone a shared and peaceful Israeli and Palestinian future: it’s “too complicated” and “too volatile” and “confusing.” Stranded between a few essentialist positions and the risk of bad-faith interpretations that end friendships, people disengage; they stay safe, don’t call their reps despite the looming genocide, and don’t express a public opinion. That’s human behavior. I also know that nothing will improve if folks who do have the resources nevertheless unplug, stop listening, and stay comfortable.

So, if you have some resources, are feeling uncomfortable with the situation, and want to contribute something, I am offering an incentive to donate to one of these Charity Navigator four-star, apolitical charities that are working to make aid available to people currently experiencing a humanitarian disaster.

  • The Middle East Children’s Alliance team and partners are providing emergency assistance to families who have fled their homes to seek shelter with relatives as well as procuring emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics.

  • The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund’s mission is to provide medical and humanitarian relief collectively and individually to Arab children throughout the Levant, regardless of their nationality, politics, or religion.

  • Anera is working to further respond to what is likely to be a large humanitarian need in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

  • UNRWA USA lifts up the voices, experiences, and humanity of Palestine refugees to secure American support for resources essential to every human being, for the promise of a better life.

Click on any of the above to donate. For a sense of what helps: “$30 can provide the Central Blood Bank Society in Gaza with 16 blood bags; $80 can provide a hygiene kit to two displaced families; $100 can provide a displaced family with a food parcel that will meet their nutritional needs for 7–10 days” (from www.anera.org). Helping human bodies not die, for about the cost of an urban date night, is a vanishingly modest request.

Although donating is a good thing to do for its own sake, here’s the bonus and/or book recommendations. If you donate at least $100 by 11:59 p.m. October 29, send me a screenshot of your receipt (DM on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, or just reply to this Substack with an email attachment) and I’ll pick two donors at random to each get a gift box of six books.

  • Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats With Me: A Gaza Diary (view on Bookshop)

  • Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost (view on Bookshop)

  • Hala Alyan’s Salt Houses (view on Bookshop)

  • Colum McCann’s Apeirogon (view on Bookshop)

  • Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance, trans. Sinan Antoon (view on Bookshop)

  • One of my author copies of The Skin and Its Girl, a signed first-edition hardcover (view on Bookshop)

This is completely my own thing—none of these publishers, other authors, or charity orgs are involved. So: donate however much you want, but donate $100 or more and send me your receipt, and you could get $100 worth of books. Do it now so you don’t forget about it. And if the random-number generator picks the date/hour you donated, I’ll get your details and mail the books to your U.S. address in early November. Keep them for yourself, share them in a Little Free Library, or gift them to people who will enjoy them—whatever feels right. Winners are anonymous unless you want to post about it.

Thanks for reading this, and take care of your hearts, friends.

Sarah Cypher