Whit Press

12/11/2025

Ready to Read

Stay tuned… Our highly anticipated longlists come out next week!

12/06/2025

12/02/2025

Assuring a place for our poets and storytellers to learn, develop, and publish their work is at root an act of hope. It is grounded in the certainty that the written word transcends barriers of culture, race, and class, and intimately connects us to one another’s lives–as individuals, as communities, and as a nation.

ONE OF OUR DONORS HAS OFFERED $2,500 MATCH POOL FOR GIFT TO WHIT PRESS ON THIS GIVING TUESDAY! Any donation you make today will be matched, dollar for dollar, up to $2.5K!

Our donation link is secure and powered by Click&Pledge, a nonprofit dedicated to serving other nonprofits. Your gift is tax deductible. NO percentage of your gift goes to 'fees' supporting FaceBook, Amazon, or PayPal— corporations who are responsible for so much damage to our Democracy, free-speech, and environment.

Those corps are often the 'big winners' for events like 'Giving Tuesday'. You have the option to bypass them all when making a gift to Whit. Integrity matters.

I hope Whit Press will be part of your year end giving. As a small organization, your support means so much. With Gratitude and Respect for you all, thank you. Link below

Assuring a place for our poets and storytellers to publish their work is at root an act of hope. It is grounded in the certainty that the written word transcends barriers of culture, race, and class, and intimately connects us to one another’s lives–as individuals, as communities, and as a natio...

11/24/2025

24 Gazans killed; Israeli settlers poison sheep, boast about their terrorism; land theft in W Bank; US campuses treat anti-genocide protesters like terrorists

11/24/2025

Egyptian-Canadian author Omar El Akkad’s book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This has received the National Book Awards in the US.

El Akkad’s first work of non-fiction was written after the Gaza war began and accuses the West of complicity in the Palestinian enclave’s destruction.

The title of the book reflects how moral stances easily shift once violence has passed. El Akkad reflects upon these topics as he also recounts his own upbringing across Egypt, Qatar and Canada.

The book was among five titles that competed in the non-fiction category of the annual US awards.

11/05/2025

Here is the third of four reliefs located in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. It is titled “The Rescue of Captain John Smith by Pocahontas.” It was sculpted by Antonio Capellano in 1825.

This relief reflects how early America used art to justify conquest and comfort itself with myths of friendship and forgiveness. It is part of the fictitious American origin story.

For two centuries, this story, retold in books, classrooms, and a Disney cartoon, has been celebrated as a moment of friendship and peace. It is pure fiction.

John Smith didn’t mention this supposed “rescue” until seventeen years after it supposedly happened, long after he’d returned to England and needed to rebuild his reputation. By then, he had learned that a story of a beautiful “Indian princess” saving a brave Englishman sold well to readers eager for tales of adventure and divine destiny.

Meanwhile, the real Pocahontas, whose name was Matoaka, was kidnapped by English colonists and held hostage to force her father, Chief Powhatan, into submission. Although her people met most of the English demands, she was never released.

During captivity she was converted to Christianity, renamed Rebecca, and married John Rolfe. Taken to England as a trophy, Pocahontas died in 1617 at the age of 21. She was buried in Gravesend, England.

The Capitol relief portrays a child as a woman, a hostage as a heroine, and conquest as divine fate.

Matoaka, aka Pocahontas, deserves better. We all deserve better.

11/02/2025

The US Consulate General in Lagos has revoked Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's visa. The 91-year-old playwright announced this at a press conference on October 23. The consulate cited "additional information" but provided no further explanation.
https://brittlepaper.com/2025/10/nobel-laureate-wole-soyinkas-us-visa-revoked/

10/16/2025

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/a-magical-vision-is-hidden-in-the-irish-language-we-need-to-rediscover-it-1.3558112?fbclid=IwY2xjawNeQ-FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHitKhlZrfUMkkASFOE9N1VPC1rbJvMixlM8hfqqirrRTscYSIhbDKqiwBMhm_aem_3wQyLfZKA3XP0G-Rb7G30g

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