Common Notions

12/04/2025

Andreas Petrossiants and Andrew Ross talked about THE WEATHER REPORT for e-flux.

Listen here >> https://buff.ly/bFcpYrG

12/02/2025

Happy pub day to Ata Nahai's BIRDS IN A GALE!

Originally published in 2002, this is a poignant, psychological, and deeply political effort by one of Kurdistan’s best-loved writers to restore the Kurds to their rightful place in revolutionary history.

Translated by Chiya Parvizpur and Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo of Henar Press.

Available at your favorite bookstore and our site: https://buff.ly/edeUn4d

11/26/2025

"BIRDS IN A GALE is a layered, self-reflexive novel, a literary resurrection of a silenced, stateless nation...at once political and metaphysical." —Ava Homa, DAUGHTERS OF SMOKE AND FIRE

A classic from Kurdish writer Ata Nahai, coming soon to English readers.

Read an excerpt: https://buff.ly/9MXRWic

11/24/2025

Spring titles are up! Head to our site to see what's in the works for 2026.

https://buff.ly/NqASLux

11/12/2025

“This essential book articulates and embodies ethical knowledge production amidst the rising tide of tech authoritarianism. It centers tech worker struggle and revives workers’ inquiry as the site of knowledge production and resistance. It is an inspiring and critical corrective to the proliferation of apolitical research on Big Tech.”

Veena Dubal, Professor of Law at UC Irvine on NOTES TOWARD A DIGITAL WORKERS' INQUIRY

⚡️ https://buff.ly/eFJqFWQ

11/06/2025

Coming soon: Ata Nahai's BIRDS IN A GALE!

Some years after the overthrow of the Shah, Mehraban has returned to Iran after a period of wandering and isolation to write the story of a famed Kurdish revolutionary named Farhad. Guided by our unnamed narrator, Mehraban pursues his story and its living-dead subject, learning that he and Farhad share bittersweet memories of a lost love amid fractured historical nightmares. Trapped in consciousness, trapped by mortality, trapped in a world that is not and cannot be objective, BIRDS IN A GALE turns in on itself, entangling Mehraban’s and Farhad’s once-separate identities irrevocably, before rejecting the objective altogether.

Originally published in 2002, this is a poignant, psychological, and deeply political effort by one of Kurdistan’s best-loved writers to restore the Kurds to their rightful place in revolutionary history. This inventive metatext, lucidly translated by Chiya Parvizpur and Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo, is reminiscent of the best of George Saunders and Elias Khoury, and an instant classic of twenty-first century world literature.

Available 12/2/2025, preorder with BIRDSINAGALE to save 25%: www.commonnotions.org/birds-in-a-gale

11/04/2025

Happy pub day to NOTES TOWARD A DIGITAL WORKERS' INQUIRY.

The rank and file are now coming from precarious new “gig jobs” and drawing strength from a class of worker who does what computers still cannot. Previously thought to be “unorganizable,” these workers are part of a North American movement that is reaffirming faith in collective revolutionary action through new methods of organizing, new ways of association, and a new synthesis of traditional labor activities with original research.

To capture this growing class consciousness, The Capacitor Collective has conducted interviews with platform workers and organizers whose efforts align traditional motives with new tactics in a text that shakes up the worker inquiry tradition and imagines new ways to produce knowledge with and for the movement.

Available now via our site, your local library, or favorite bookstore!

www.commonnotions.org/notes-toward-a-digital-workers-inquiry

10/27/2025

NOTES TOWARD A DIGITAL WORKERS' INQUIRY by The Capacitor Collective is coming soon!

Who are they? The Capacitor Collective is a research collective that uses worker inquiry to build digital worker power from below. They're also organizers who understand the importance of prioritizing and amplifying workers' voices. Their forthcoming book is a collection of interviews that challenge the stereotype that the tech industry is unorganizable.

NOTES TOWARD A DIGITAL WORKERS' INQUIRY is an eye-opening and inspiring read. Preorder your copy to save a few bucks and get a free zine on the history of workers’ inquiry! https://buff.ly/PwI942X

10/22/2025

"There must also be pressure to end the unsparing detention of the thousands of Palestinians who continue to be held in Israel’s prisons..."

New op-ed by Andrew Ross, author of THE WEATHER REPORT. His essay uses interviews to bring attention to the "unacknowledged third front" in the war on Gaza.

Read it on THE NEW YORK TIMES 👇

Thousands of hostages are still awaiting freedom.

10/20/2025

Catch the author of ON ACTIVISM, FRIENDSHIPS, AND FIGHTING at two New York events this fall.

The first one is next week 10/29 at The CUNY Graduate Center from 3-4pm. Benjamin Shepard will be discussing oral history, friendship, and social movement research.

The second event will be Saturday 11/8 in High Falls, NY at Blue Heron Books. This event will be a special treat where Benjamin will be in conversation with journalist and ACT UP member, Jay Blotcher. Don't miss it!

https://buff.ly/kNsPScd

10/17/2025

"There can be no doubt, however, that Israel’s war on prisoners was the third front in its assault on Gaza and the West Bank, and it involves possible crimes under the Geneva Conventions that have gone largely unseen by anyone but the victims. These prisoners, too, are hostages to the conflict, and they, too, deserve justice."

Andrew Ross for the NY Times:

Thousands of hostages are still awaiting freedom.

10/15/2025

Coming soon: BIRDS IN A GALE by Ata Nahai.

Originally published in 2002, BIRDS IN A GALE is a poignant, psychological, and deeply political effort by one of Kurdistan’s best-loved writers to restore the Kurds to their rightful place in revolutionary history. This inventive metatext, lucidly translated by Chiya Parvizpur and Hourieh Maleki Qouzloo, is reminiscent of the best of George Saunders and Elias Khoury, and an instant classic of twenty-first century world literature.

In stores across the US 11/25.

Preorder by 11/24 with BIRDSINAGALE for 25% off.

https://buff.ly/703nyCs