A brief note about yarn, literacy, and the United States of America.

Here are literacy-focused and bookish advocacy action items you can do right now.

The United States of America is a tangled ball of yarn. It contains so many problems knotted together. Each strand pulls on others. Trying to untangle the entire ball is overwhelming. It takes all of our attention just to unwind one strand. How are we supposed to unwind them all?

This month, the United States failed. It failed to support its citizens who needed it the most. It failed to eradicate hate. It failed to educate those who move in hatred and misinformation and fear, all of whom are scrambling to hold onto some sense of power or hope in the wake of a global pandemic that has moved the entire world to the right. The United States failed because of death by a thousand cuts: Christofascism, capitalism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, lack of education, disinformation campaigns, media failures, community failures.

A thousand cuts. A thousand strands of yarn. Leaving the strands tangled is not an option. You are in the center of the ball of yarn. The knots will tighten around you, suffocate you.

So where do you start?

You pick one strand. You devote yourself to it. And you trust that others in the center of the yarn ball will pick another strand and devote themselves to it.

You pick apart the world, one strand at a time, and you hold your neighbors tight while you do.

The strand I have chosen is literacy. Book access is going to be more challenged than ever. Literacy rates dropping as media illiteracy skyrocketed played a huge role in the misinformation failure of this election. Though I will continue to do other work where I can—calling my senators about bills they can pass, financially supporting mutual aid organizations in my area—the core focus of my advocacy work has been and will continue to be literacy.

If you are reading this newsletter, you probably care about books and stories. It is okay if, at the moment, you are sitting and hugging your cat and taking a minute to enjoy your life and ground yourself. There is a long road ahead. There are many feelings to process. But you might also, like me, be somebody who copes with grief and rage and despair through productivity. Somebody who needs a direction to move in. Who loves a to-do list.

Somebody who believes that if they are going to be swallowed, they might as well make the bastards choke.

Problems are interconnected. You can love books and decide you want to focus your attention on other things. Many booksellers suffer from housing insecurity. Many authors and illustrators struggle with food insecurity. Literacy is one of many threads. And not all work to untangle those many thread is publicly visible. Not all work should be publicly visible. I will not assume that anybody is or is not doing work in their communities, and you should not make assumptions about what others are doing. You also do not have to feel you must perform your own activism.

But the change we need will not come from doing the things we are already doing. If that would fix the world, the world would be fixed. As Audre Lorde wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” We need to do something new. It will be uncomfortable.

Be uncomfortable.

The first and best thing you can do if you love books and if you want to prepare for the fight ahead is to find local progressive activists, groups, and candidates who are already in your area. Support them. They are doing the work and have already built the infrastructure to continue doing that work. What they need most is you.

You will not be perfect. They will not be perfect. Nobody is perfect. Imperfect allies working toward a common goal is how change happens.

So much change needs to happen.

Below you’ll find a list of literacy-based and bookish advocacy action items that you can take right now. It is far from comprehensive. There are options for everybody: casual readers and industry professionals, people who are already involved in advocacy and people who are only now realizing how much work needs to be done. You do not have to do all of them. (You, in fact, can't do all of them!) Start with one. Dedicate yourself to it. See what you can create as you unravel your strand.

The United States has failed so many of us. The fascist and bigoted want us to despair. No matter how much hope they try to steal, they cannot have our determination.

Let us tell our stories. If they wish to swallow us whole, let them choke on our words.

I know you're tired. Let's get to work anyway.

• Join your local library board. If no local library board positions are currently open, stay involved by talking to librarians and attending any public hearings or meetings with the library on the agenda. If you feel overwhelmed, a great way to start small is subscribing to your library’s email newsletter and any local government newsletters.

• Adopt an independent bookstore and purchase books exclusively from that bookstore. If you do not have an indie near you, choose one further away, preferably a BIPOC- or queer-owned rural bookstore. A personal favorite of mine is Loyalty Bookstore in Washington, D.C., which has faced so many challenges in the past few years while continuing to be a beacon of light for its immediate community and the bookselling community alike.

• Break up with Amazon as much as you can. If asked by trade or nonprofit organizations you trust, call your representatives and demand they support the FTC lawsuit against Amazon. Amazon is a monopoly whose founder supports Trump, and it devalues workers and books.

• Join your local school board or PTSA. If no positions are available or you are unable to join, attend meetings. Share agenda items and bring friends with you to make your voices heard. This is another great way in which, if you are overwhelmed, you can start small: follow your PTSA newsletter or social media accounts and pledge to go to one meeting.

• Donate books by historically excluded authors and about contemporary issues to libraries, Little Free Libraries, and other community spaces where folks can easily access them. If you’re donating to libraries, make sure ahead of time that those donations can be accepted as part of their collection and not as an addition to their fundraising book sales. Libraries may prefer that you request books be added to their collections through purchase requests or holds on Libby.

• Keep a library of banned books. If you share those books, especially in areas where it may be forbidden to do so, make sure you are not tracked. Avoid creating public posts with shared locations about your activities, and consider using a secure, encrypted messaging platform such as Signal.

• If you are a parent, caregiver or teacher, share basic literacy and media literacy strategies with your children. Focus especially on how to fact check and how to spot misinformation. If this is your first time teaching a child about mis- and disinformation, I recommend Elise Gravel’s Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories for assistance.

• Find literacy projects that you can fund and support in your community. The focus of these projects may include children, incarcerated readers, low-income households or non-native English speakers.

• If you have disposable income, donate to organizations that fight book bans and support book workers. Options include the Book Industry Network Charity, the American Civil Liberties Union, American Booksellers for Free Expression and more. Your local library may also be able to accept donations.

• Join Authors Against Book Bans, a coalition of book creators (including writers, illustrators, and anthology editors and contributors) that fights book bans across the country.

• Join both trade organizations and grassroots organizations. Trade organizations such as the ABA or NAIBA may not be inherently progressive, but alongside groups like People of Color in Publishing, they help build connections to organize at scale.

• Join or start a union. Unions help protect labor rights inside the book industry. Although unions are not necessarily the right fit for every small business model, inside the publishing industry, unions can especially protect marginalized workers who may be at higher risk of firing.

• Diversify your reading habits. Buy and read books from marginalized authors and smaller publishers to help ensure that book creators without ties to conservatives can thrive.

Many people like to think that reading is a form of activism, but reading does not create change unless you pair it with other actions. I have read so many books that have inspired me to be the sort of person who wants to make that change. I know you have, too.

It is normal to be afraid. It is normal to grieve the world that could have been. This dread, this anxiety, over the myriad things you know are coming down the pipeline—they are evidence that you are human. They are evidence that you care. That you believe in the stories that say we can and should be better than this.

I don’t know if I feel hopeful. I feel determined. Determination is a different thing. It's scrappy and hungry, and it keeps moving forward, keeps fighting, even as bigger, hungrier jaws try to swallow it up. But I feel this way because I have read our histories and our fantasies. I know where we have come from and I know where we dream of going. No matter who sits in the seats of power, they cannot take away the truths I have seen in the stories we tell.

Here is the story I believe: You are worth fighting for. We are worth fighting for. I am going to fight for myself. I am going to fight for my friends. I am going to fight for you.

One strand at a time.

A condensed list of these action items is available for sharing on Instagram.