The art won't separate

Hello from Taurus szn ♉

It’s my time to shine, baybeee!! I’m a spring baby through and through, and I have a great allegiance not just to my birth season but also to my birth month (May babies are simply the best) and day of birth (people born on the 10th of the month just rock) and, let’s be real, time of birth (No, I won’t give this out. If you want my birth chart just ask for it!!!!).

Since I’ve started getting more well-versed in astrology and the stars, I’ve fully embraced being a Taurus. I still don’t know all of what it means, but I do think it means I’m stubborn as hell (true) and grounded (you tell me).

Anyway, rant aside — happy Sunday <3 I hope you’ve all had the types of weeks you dream of, and that you’re gearing up for this upcoming week1 with rest and grace. We could all use a little more grace, especially for ourselves. In this newsletter, you’ll find:

1. From the heart: just a little tidbit

2. From the camera roll: snapshots of the past two weeks

3. From the page: writing as activism (part 1)

Make yourself known in the comments! How are you? Tell me!

From the heart 💗

I’m not brave enough to share the thoughts that are loudest on my heart today. They’re angry, and close to the surface, and frankly a little terrifying. Maybe someday I’ll have the strength to share them, but today I’m feeling a little too vulnerable already.

So instead I’ll share something out that’s on my heart: I love you and I hope you’re well. I love you and I think you deserve the world. <3

That is all for today.

From the camera roll 📸

From the page ✍️

This is my newsletter equivalent of a subtweet. Don’t worry about who I’m subtweeting, it was a quote from a book I saw on a random Twitter account and I didn’t catch who said the quote. The quote in question being something along the lines of how writers don’t need to be activists, and maybe…shouldn’t? Be activists?

It’s a conversation that seems to be happening in multiple places around my socials, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the issue.

My biggest thought is this: fuck yeah writers should be activists.

There are authors out there who are involved in loud activism — I think of J.K. Rowling, whose odious campaign of transphobia has not just hurt readers of her books who now must grapple with her hate, it has also inspired others in their own hate. That’s activism. It’s the devil’s activism, but you can’t say it’s not activism of some kind.

There are also authors who are involved in a quieter, subtler activism. These are the ones who are writing the books that conservatives are trying to ban, the ones who are telling the truth about hard things even when it’s scary, the ones who thread every word of their story with a truth they wish to share.

Again; just because someone is engaging in activism, or I say they are, doesn’t mean I agree with the activism they are performing. Or that it can’t be performative activism.

Actually, I’m gonna stop writing the word “activism” and talk about something that I think is a deeper note in this conversation; which is the concept of separating the art from the artist. I’m gonna come out immediately and say that I don’t believe in this concept.

I’ve told people that in the past who’ve looked at me and been surprised that’s my belief, as I’m a writer. It’s precisely because I’m a writer that I know how our worldview gets tangled up in our writing. It’s in the little things, the assumptions made in the worldbuilding or the way we describe women descending boobily down the stairs2 or the facility with which we throw out slurs that don’t need to be there.

I’m not saying that a character using a slur is automatically a sign that the author would do so; more, I’m saying that it shows an author’s assumptions about how to handle this topic: plainly in the text or obliquely, so as to protect a reader from being triggered by it3.

So when it comes to separation, art from artist or artist from art, I don’t believe in it. I think that you would have to try incredibly hard and be extremely talented in order to put out a piece of writing fully divorced from your beliefs and worldview, biases and faith. So if you’re racist — that’ll show up in the work, inadvertently or not. If you believe in the genuine goodness of all people, that’ll show up.

The more open your mind, the more open your art.

I think books are incredible for entertainment, but I don’t know that I believe in the possibility of a book that is only entertainment, without even a hint of activism. To me, activism is impossible to divorce from politics, which frankly is not a fun little part of life to sequester away until Election Night, it’s the framework that colors every facet of our lives so you should care about politics, there’s no such thing as “I’m just not into politics,” that itself is a political stance, I —

Anyway. Activism, politics, and books — they’re all more closely related than we like to give them credit for.

And they should be. I’ll talk more in my next “from the page” about why I think writers should absolutely be — and strive to be — activists. What are your thoughts?

Alla prossima 👋

To close out this week’s letter, I’d like to share that I recently listed my editorial services on Famm — a site built to bring attention to LGBTQ+ service providers. I’d love it if you’d check my page out, maybe share it, and if you or someone you know is looking for a copy editor or someone to do a line edit or reader report — consider me!

Lately, every time I open Twitter or Threads, I feel a little sick to my stomach. Not because of the wild book world discourse that flows there, but because every time I do I see some god-awful take from someone who thinks it’s okay that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Newsflash: it’s not okay, it’s horrifying and they must be stopped. Do what you can this week to accomplish the stopping.

Love y’all.— Karis xoxo