Diane Lefer's Blog, page 5

Countdown to pub date

23 weeks to go for Out of Place, and here’s this week’s image:

Countdown to Out of Place pub date

24 weeks to go, and here’s this week’s image.

24 weeks to go, and here’s this week’s image:

Countdown to Out of Place

25 weeks to pub date. And continuing the Monday series, here’s this week’s image.

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Countdown to Out of Place

26 weeks till pub date. Here’s today’s image:

Countdown

We now have an official pub date for my novel, Out of Place. Here’s the cover.

And each Monday, I’ll post an image connected to the characters or the story, starting today: 27 weeks to go.

Saying Goodbye to Dianna Ortiz

Dianna Ortiz, an American nun, was working with Indigenous people when she was abducted, tortured and raped by the Guatemalan military. Her fight to see justice done uncovered the US complicity with the Guatemalan genocide. She became an important part of the campaign against the practice of torture and for the healing of survivors. She directed TASSC – Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition.

In 2012, at the Program for Torture Victims, we honored her as a Human Rights Hero. We learned today that she died this week, in hospice, much too young at 62.

Thinking of her made me remember: I was in Guatemala about a decade before she was, briefly staying at a guesthouse where military officers stationed in the village also took meals. We ate family-style. I was talking about the school for Indigenous youth where I’d been living in Mexico. The table fell silent till one of the men said, “Señorita, you must not talk about this. It’s all very good for Mexico, but in this country, if you teach an Indian to read, the Army will kill you.”

Rest in peace, Sister Dianna.

Coming in September

I’m busy correcting proofs for Out of Place, coming out this Fall from Fomite Press. The novel, centered around a research institute in the Mojave Desert, looks at the human consequences of the security state as international scientists (whose storylines take us to Mexico, India, Iran, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, and Turkey) fall under suspicion in the aftermath of 9/11.

Interview with Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr.

I’ve been hearing from so many people who were moved by Rev. James Lawson speaking at the funeral of John Lewis that I wanted to share this. In 2008 and 2009, I had the honor and opportunity of interviewing Rev. Lawson. Sections of this lengthy interview appeared in The Believer and Fellowship Magazine, but the entire interview has not been available publicly before. You can download it here.

A new short short story

My most recent published fiction, out now in the Winter 2020 issues of Contrary Magazine.

Lola in the House!

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