The Montreal-based Anarchist Writers Bloc (AWB) has published Subversions Vol II, their second anthology of new anarchist fiction. The 260 page, trilingual (English, French & Italian) text is a powerful collection of 28 original short stories from 28 established and emerging anarchist writers from around the world.
It includes an English preface by American author of 17 novels, Marge Piercy (Gone to Soldiers, Woman on the Edge of Time, and Vida, Braided Lives,), and a French preface by Belgian Situationist (and contemporary of Guy Debord), Raoul Vaneigem (The Revolution of Everyday Life, The Movement of the Free Spirit, and Book of Pleasure). Among the English authors included are: Peter Gelderloos, Jamie Heckert, Sandra Jeppesen, Frank Miller, and Norman Nawrocki.
Like Subversions Vol. I, this second volume presents a broad range of anarchist short stories, from hardcore waving of the black flag to more reflective and sometimes introspective story telling and soul-searching. As a movement and a political philosophy that values freedom above all, anarchism has always attracted artists, writers and creative rebel spirits.
The idea for Subversions was launched during the eleventh annual 2010 Montreal Anarchist Bookfair where 30 international anarchist writers met to discuss common interests. From this meeting the AWB was born and Subversions became a collective project coordinated by the Montreal group.
The AWB is a core group of a dozen Montreal writers who promote anarchist theory and action through works of literature, poetry, theatre, and screenwriting. Apart from this book, the AWB collaborates on special projects such as literary workshops and regular rowdy and drunken nights of anarchist cabaret, where music, theatre, comedy, song and poetry rule.
Subversions Vol. II (260 pages; $15) is distributed in the USA and Europe by AK Press (akpress.org) and in Canada by the Anarchist Writers Bloc/Le Bloc des auteur-e-s anarchistes, c/o L’Insoummise, 2033 boul St-Laurent, Montreal, Quebec, H2X 2T3, Canada. Web: awb.daemonflower.com; e-mail: awb@daemonflower.com