Aora Books

Revealing the cover of Wherever You Are: Essays from East to West by Yahia Lababidi (@yahialababidi ) — with artwork by Maryam Lameiharvani (@maryamlameiharvani ) and design by Melissa Weiss. Preorder your copy today. The book will be shipping on February 23rd, 2027. In the not-quite-aftermath of the Gaza War, Wherever You Are offers urgent reflections on Palestine as both lived inheritance and moral imperative. Lababidi’s work speaks to audiences weary of overly simplistic thinking: he writes from between East and West, exile and belonging, mysticism and modernity, offering a rare, lyrical perspective that refuses easy binaries. A writer caught between worlds — Palestinian by blood, American by circumstance, and by temperament a stranger to easy belonging — Lababidi composes a spiritual autobiography disguised as cultural criticism. In these essays, Yahia Lababidi moves between high and low, sacred and mundane, resisting the comfort of choosing. He writes of Oscar Wilde and belly dancers, of Rumi and Ramadan television, of raising pigeons on a Florida balcony while the world burns in Gaza. These are essays in the truest sense, affirming that a life of letters is a form of resistance. Preorder the book at the link in our bio.
https://loom.ly/WrCbnZU About the Author
Yahia Lababidi is the author of sixteen books, including Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) and What Remains to Be Said: Aphorisms (Wild Goose Publications, 2025). His work has appeared in Liberties, Salmagundi, The New Statesman, World Literature Today, AGNI, The Best American Poetry, and The New Arab, and has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and ABC Radio National. Book Details
Designer: Melissa Weiss
Artwork: Maryam Lameiharvani (@maryamlameiharvani )
 Publication date: February 23rd, 2027

Today we celebrate the publication of Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader, a profound, playful, and kaleidoscopic collection from one of our most evocative contemporary philosopher-poets. The author adrienne maree brown (@adriennemareebrown ) has said “Báyò Akómoláfé is a philosopher who is pushing us to think outside of every narrative we take for granted. In this text, he guides us to reconsider how we relate to the world—and to internalize the fact that earth and all of nature are alive, relating to us.” The book is edited by Eden Pearlstein, cofounder of Ayin. Order the book: loom.ly/2TGTgeU About Selah:
A posthumanist polymath and “trans-public” intellectual, Báyò Akómoláfé has produced a vast body of work that presents a startling picture of the world in perpetual process and radical relation. Through an ever-growing archive of books, articles, interviews, social media posts, workshops, and rituals, Akómoláfé seeks to interrogate the fundamental assumptions and epistemological gaps in our current culture in crisis. Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader presents a poetically arranged selection of Akómoláfé’s short-form writings, which draw inspiration from Édouard Glissant; Gilles Deleuze; Gregory Bateson; Octavia Butler; Fernand Deligny; Chinua Achebe; the adventures of Esu, the Yoruba monster-trickster and crossroads figure; and more. A tightly curated composition of aphorisms, anti-epiphanies, prose poems, and philosophical fragments, Selah invites readers into the thicket of Akómoláfé’s thought, weaving together threads of his most critically creative concepts—such as ontofugitivity, ecocognitive assemblage theory, parapolitics, and postactivism. Taking its title from an enigmatic Hebrew word that appears throughout the Book of Psalms—one that suggests a moment of ecstatic exclamation or musical notation—Selah is a book that can be read in an hour or studied for years, kept by your bedside or passed among friends like an open secret. Book Details
122 pages | Paperback | 5 1/16 x 7 3/4 in. | ISBN: 9781961814318 | e-ISBN: 9781961814356
Publication date: March 10th, 2026
Book design by Melissa Weiss
Cover art by Krista Dragomer (@kristadragomerart )

We’re very proud that SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by Cannupa Hanska Luger (@cannupahanska ) has won the 2026 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at the 62nd PEN America Literary Awards (@penamerica ) last week. Read the winners announcement and watch the awards ceremony: https://loom.ly/DLgKwg4 Order the book: https://loom.ly/5eACKp0 From the PEN America judges: “SURVIVA is a love song: to Earth, to community, to all who understand the only possible future is one that returns to Indigenous lifeways. What’s startling isn’t the dystopian charge—though that’s there—but the tenderness threaded through it, a choreography of care embedded in sharp surfaces. Multi-genre and multi-voiced, wholly devoted to the specificity of its observations, SURVIVA doesn’t imagine apocalypse as spectacle so much as it imagines endurance as relationship. Survival here is neither heroic nor solitary, but collective, improvised, and ethically burdened—an ongoing negotiation between Indigenous futurity, colonial debris, and the quiet insistence that something livable must still be made, even now.” About SURVIVA: Part graphic novel, part art book, SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide offers readers a view beneath, beyond, and between the lines of Luger’s ever-expanding artistic universe. In this ecstatically hybrid work, Luger transforms a 1970s military survival guide through poetic redaction, speculative fiction, and iterative line drawing—deftly surfacing and disrupting the colonial subconscious that haunts this vexed source text. An epic and timely meditation on planetary life in the midst of transformation, SURVIVA boldly presents an earth-based, demilitarized futuredream that foregrounds Indigenous knowledge as critical to humanity’s survival. Book design by Cem Eskinazi (@cemeskinazi )
Product photography by Jackson Krule (@jacksonkrule

To read Báyò Akómoláfé (@bayo.akomolafe ) is to enter a world of unexpected encounters between thinkers, traditions, and stories you would never have imagined in conversation.  Drawing on the relational poetics of Édouard Glissant, the queer art of Jack Halberstam, the critical imagination of Octavia Butler, Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming, Yoruba trickster tales, and so much more, Báyò inherits and translates a polyvocal rhizome of stories and thought.  The result? A body of work that is labyrinthine, even Talmudic. It is oral and literate, with no clear point of entry. It is nonlinear, fractally intertextual, attuned to both the all-too- and more-than-human worlds, and obsessed with loopholes.  Order the book at the link in our bio or visit: https://loom.ly/UcBMbTQ  Book design by Melissa Weiss Cover artwork by Krista Dragomer (@kristadragomerart )

Revealing the cover of Who Do You Think You Are? by Yuli Novak featuring artwork by Addam Yekutieli (Know Hope) (@thisislimbo ) and type design by Melissa Weiss. Preorder your copy today. The book will be shipping on December 15th, 2026. Braiding intimate travelogue with searing political memory, Novak traces the story of a personal and political unraveling, exploring the relationship and tension between militarism and masculinity, silence and survival, home and exile. In the wake of the ongoing destruction of Gaza, Who Do You Think You Are? reflects on the path that has carried Israel into a regime of extremism and unrestrained violence, offering a necessary meditation on conscience, complicity, and the search for another way. Who Do You Think You Are?, the English translation of the bestselling Hebrew memoir, is an intimate and unflinching account of what it means to confront a system of violence from within. In 2015, as director of Breaking the Silence — a controversial group of Israeli army veterans resisting the occupation — Yuli Novak found herself branded a traitor by the Prime Minister, vilified by the media, subjected to death threats, and caught in the crosshairs of a nation unwilling to face its own reflection. Two years later, Novak stepped down from her role, packed a bag, and bought a one-way ticket out of the country. She set off alone, traveling from the moon-like landscape of Iceland to the beaches of Portugal and the heart of South Africa, navigating waves of grief, rage, love, and belonging. Preorder your copy at the link in our bio or visit: https://loom.ly/pceQFFE About the Author Yuli Novak is an Israeli human‑rights activist, lawyer, and former Israeli Air Force officer. In 2023 she was appointed Executive Director of B’Tselem (@btselem ), Israel’s leading human-rights organization. This project was produced in partnership with @albi__world . Albi is a fund, institute and lab that uses cultural vehicles to create and amplify paradigm-shifting narratives by and about Israel-Palestine. Book Details Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-961814-40-0 Publication date: December 15th, 2026

Báyò Akómoláfé (@bayo.akomolafe ) defies neat categories. A widely celebrated writer, teacher, posthumanist thinker, and self-styled “trans-public” intellectual, he has produced a dynamic body of work that presents a startling portrait of the world in perpetual process and radical relation. Born in Nigeria, raised in Germany and Congo, currently living with his family in India, and calling Brazil his spiritual home, Báyò is a true global citizen. Rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, he is the visionary founder of the Emergence Network (@the_emergence_network ), and currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Macalester College. Through an ever-growing archive of articles, books, interviews, films, social media posts, workshops, and rituals, Báyò seeks to interrogate the fundamental assumptions and epistemological gaps in our current culture in crisis. Weaving together the most luminous threads of his thought, Selah invites readers into the thicket of Báyò’s body of work. Order the book at the link in our bio: https://loom.ly/UcBMbTQ Book design: Melissa Weiss Cover artwork: Krista Dragomer (@kristadragomerart )

Some words resist definition. Selah is one of them. Although selah appears seventy-four times throughout the Old Testament, scholars have long debated its meaning. Is it an exclamatory affirmation? A signpost for thematic shifts? Is it a kind of musical notation—a pause, a breath? Or, should we think of selah as a meaningfully meaningless string of letters, a fertile void? “Selah is the name I give to the moment when understanding offers no more access, when language offers no usable description,” Báyò Akómoláfé (@bayo.akomolafe ) writes. What better title, then, for a collection of writings that refuse to be simplified, streamlined, or pinned down? As editor Eden Pearlstein sifted through thousands of pages of books, articles, essays, social media posts, interviews, and lectures, it became clear that Báyò has a rare gift for the short form. Aphoristic blasts of poetic brilliance. Lucid flashes smuggled into language. Philosophical fragments, prose poems, and stuttering revelations. Soon, the idea for this collection emerged: One long selah, composed of smaller selahs. A book-length meditation, meant to be entered carefully, creatively, collaboratively. Like prayer. Like art. Like play. Order your copy: https://loom.ly/UcBMbTQ Book design by Melissa Weiss Cover artwork by Krista Dragomer (@kristadragomerart )

Welcome to the Báyò-verse. Selah is a profound, playful, and kaleidoscopic collection from one of our most evocative contemporary philosopher-poets. We are excited to share that you can now purchase the audiobook version of Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader. For those already swimming in the depths of Báyò Akómoláfé’s (@bayo.akomolafe ) language, as well as those encountering his dynamic body of work for the first time, Selah offers an accessible and ecstatic entry into a visionary thinker’s signature thought and poetics. Order now: https://loom.ly/BFlcvVs “Brokenness is not secondary to wholeness. Not the means to an end. Not a thing apart, complete in all by itself. In the same way, darkness is not merely the absence of light. There are imperatives woven into the thick that illumination knows nothing about. There are wisdoms only cracks can articulate. There are tunes only accessible to low frequencies.” —Báyò Akómoláfé About the Author 
A widely celebrated writer, teacher, posthumanist thinker, and self-styled “trans-public” intellectual, Báyò Akómoláfé has produced a dynamic body of work that presents a startling portrait of the world in perpetual process and radical relation. Born in Nigeria, raised in Germany and Congo, currently living with his family in India, calling Brazil his spiritual home, and rooted with the Yoruba people, he is the visionary founder of the Emergence Network, and currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute and Macalester College. Eden Pearlstein (editor) is a multimedia language-artist and cofounder of Ayin Press. He is the author of the poetry collection Nothing Is for Everyone, a creative contributor to SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by Cannupa Hanska Luger, and coauthor/editor of the chapbook In/Flux: On Influence, Inspiration, Transmission, and Transformation. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two children. Book Details:
122 pages | e-ISBN: 9781961814356
Publication date: April 14, 2026
 Book design by Melissa Weiss
Cover art by Krista Dragomer (@kristadragomerart )
Sound Design: Alexis Cuadrado (@alexiscuadrado ) and Welterweight Studio (@welterweight_sound )

We’re still buzzing from last week’s announcement that Cannupa Hanska Luger’s (@cannupahanska ) SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Guide, won the 2026 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at the 62nd PEN America Literary Awards (@penamerica ). Swipe to see photos from the event. Read the winners announcement and watch the awards ceremony: https://loom.ly/DLgKwg4
Order the book: https://loom.ly/5eACKp0 The PEN/Jean Stein Book Award is given to a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, recognizing works that break new ground, reshape the boundaries of form, and signal lasting influence. We’re so grateful for this award.  SURVIVA offers readers a glimpse beneath, beyond, and between the lines of Luger’s ever-expanding artistic universe. An epic and timely meditation on planetary life amid transformation, the book presents an earth-based, demilitarized future dream that foregrounds Indigenous knowledge as critical to humanity’s survival.

Listen to the final part of Cannupa Hanska Luger’s (@cannupahanska ) acceptance speech for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at the 62nd PEN America Literary Awards (@penamerica ), where he honors the collaborators who helped bring SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide to life. He closes with: “I imagined my audience was in a future far from now. You proved me wrong.” We’re grateful to hold this book in our hands and to share it with the world. Congratulations to Cannupa Hanska Luger, Eden Pearlstein (Ayin cofounder and editor), and designer Cem Eskinazi for bringing this work to life. We’re also grateful to Ginger Dunnill (@awapuhlah ), Cannupa’s studio, the PEN America judges, and the Ayin team and @tmhaviv (publisher of Aora Books) for their care and collaboration throughout the project. And congratulations to all the publishers and awardees recognized last night! Read the winners announcement and watch the awards ceremony: https://loom.ly/DLgKwg4 Order the book: https://loom.ly/5eACKp0 About SURVIVA: Part graphic novel, part art book, SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide offers readers a view beneath, beyond, and between the lines of Luger’s ever-expanding artistic universe. In this ecstatically hybrid work, Luger transforms a 1970s military survival guide through poetic redaction, speculative fiction, and iterative line drawing—deftly surfacing and disrupting the colonial subconscious that haunts this vexed source text. An epic and timely meditation on planetary life in the midst of transformation, SURVIVA boldly presents an earth-based, demilitarized futuredream that foregrounds Indigenous knowledge as critical to humanity’s survival. Book design by Cem Eskinazi (@cemeskinazi )

We’re so thrilled that SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by Cannupa Hanska Luger (@cannupahanska ) won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at the 62nd PEN America Literary Awards (@penamerica ). Listen to Cannupa’s acceptance speech, where he reflects on the book’s origins and how it evolved. From the PEN America judges: “SURVIVA is a love song: to Earth, to community, to all who understand the only possible future is one that returns to Indigenous lifeways. What’s startling isn’t the dystopian charge—though that’s there—but the tenderness threaded through it, a choreography of care embedded in sharp surfaces. Multi-genre and multi-voiced, wholly devoted to the specificity of its observations, SURVIVA doesn’t imagine apocalypse as spectacle so much as it imagines endurance as relationship. Survival here is neither heroic nor solitary, but collective, improvised, and ethically burdened—an ongoing negotiation between Indigenous futurity, colonial debris, and the quiet insistence that something livable must still be made, even now.” Congratulations to Cannupa Hanska Luger, Eden Pearlstein (Ayin cofounder and editor), and designer Cem Eskinazi (@cemeskinazi ) for bringing this work to life. We’re also grateful to Ginger Dunnill (@awapuhlah ), Cannupa’s studio, the PEN America judges, and the Ayin team (publisher of Aora Books) for their care and collaboration throughout the project. And congratulations to all the publishers and awardees recognized last night! Read the winners announcement and watch the awards ceremony: https://loom.ly/DLgKwg4 Order the book: https://loom.ly/5eACKp0 Book design by Cem Eskinazi (@cemeskinazi )

We are so honored to share that SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by Cannupa Hanska Luger (@cannupahanska ) won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award at last night’s 62nd PEN America Literary Awards (@penamerica ). As PEN America President Dinaw Mengetsu said: “This prize, this ceremony, this organization of writers and readers, and all of us who are gathered here this evening, are a reflection of this multitude, this intertwining, layered body of style and form and aesthetics. One that despite being relentlessly under assault, cannot be taken away or diminished by any one person or any government.” We extend deep congratulations to Cannupa Hanska Luger, Eden Pearlstein, Ayin’s cofounder and editor on this project, and the book’s designer Cem Eskinazi for helping bring this work to life. We’re also grateful to Ginger Dunnill (@awapuhlah ) and Cannupa’s studio, the PEN America judges, and our team at Ayin (publisher of Aora Books), whose care and collaboration supported the book from development through publication and beyond. We also wanted to congratulate all the amazing publishers and awardees whose work was recognized last night! Read the winners announcement and watch the awards ceremony: https://loom.ly/DLgKwg4 Order the book: https://loom.ly/5eACKp0 About SURVIVA: Part graphic novel, part art book, SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide offers readers a view beneath, beyond, and between the lines of Luger’s ever-expanding artistic universe. In this ecstatically hybrid work, Luger transforms a 1970s military survival guide through poetic redaction, speculative fiction, and iterative line drawing—deftly surfacing and disrupting the colonial subconscious that haunts this vexed source text. An epic and timely meditation on planetary life in the midst of transformation, SURVIVA boldly presents an earth-based, demilitarized futuredream that foregrounds Indigenous knowledge as critical to humanity’s survival. Book design by Cem Eskinazi (@cemeskinazi )