Protean Magazine
@proteanmag.com
An independent leftist magazine collecting criticism, essays, fiction, poetry, and art • Support our work at www.patreon.com/proteanmag • www.proteanmag.com/
"In Rafah lies a girl
And for this girl, a brother
And for this brother, a kite made of cloth scraps
And for the cloth, a seam stitched by their mother
And for the stitch, a spool of red thread—
still rolling across the broken tiles..."
– Ahmad Ibsais
proteanmag.com/2025/12/10/t...
And for this girl, a brother
And for this brother, a kite made of cloth scraps
And for the cloth, a seam stitched by their mother
And for the stitch, a spool of red thread—
still rolling across the broken tiles..."
– Ahmad Ibsais
proteanmag.com/2025/12/10/t...
Threadbare in Rafah • Protean Magazine
Poet Ahmad Ibsais's "Threadbare in Rafah" narrates the steadfastness of Palestinian children against the unimaginable terrors of Israel's genocide.
proteanmag.com
February 7, 2026 at 11:14 PM
"In Rafah lies a girl
And for this girl, a brother
And for this brother, a kite made of cloth scraps
And for the cloth, a seam stitched by their mother
And for the stitch, a spool of red thread—
still rolling across the broken tiles..."
– Ahmad Ibsais
proteanmag.com/2025/12/10/t...
And for this girl, a brother
And for this brother, a kite made of cloth scraps
And for the cloth, a seam stitched by their mother
And for the stitch, a spool of red thread—
still rolling across the broken tiles..."
– Ahmad Ibsais
proteanmag.com/2025/12/10/t...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
“The Serge that I love is the individualist anarchist. That, I think, was the best Serge.”
Mitch Abidor interviewed for @proteanmag.com on his new book, Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary:
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
Mitch Abidor interviewed for @proteanmag.com on his new book, Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary:
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
February 5, 2026 at 1:34 PM
“The Serge that I love is the individualist anarchist. That, I think, was the best Serge.”
Mitch Abidor interviewed for @proteanmag.com on his new book, Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary:
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
Mitch Abidor interviewed for @proteanmag.com on his new book, Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary:
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Karl Marx considered moving to Texas when he was in his 20s.
proteanmag.com/2024/08/11/m...
proteanmag.com/2024/08/11/m...
Marx Goes to Texas • Protean Magazine
From Issue IV: Ryan Moore examines Marx's analyses of the U.S.—and his onetime emigration plans. Drawn to communities of German socialist expatriates in the area, Marx once considered making his way t...
proteanmag.com
January 30, 2026 at 9:41 PM
Karl Marx considered moving to Texas when he was in his 20s.
proteanmag.com/2024/08/11/m...
proteanmag.com/2024/08/11/m...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
My essay on Abdaljawad's writings and Palestinian resistance is my attempt to answer the question that Fargo Tbakhi asked us in December 2023: 'What does Palestine require of us, as writers writing in English from within the imperial core, in this moment of genocide?'
proteanmag.com/2023/12/08/n...
proteanmag.com/2023/12/08/n...
Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide • Protean Magazine
Fargo Tbakhi writes with this reflective essay on the role and duty of writing in this time of a genocide. How do hegemonic prerogatives dictate style, content, and status? What can words do for us, w...
proteanmag.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:42 PM
My essay on Abdaljawad's writings and Palestinian resistance is my attempt to answer the question that Fargo Tbakhi asked us in December 2023: 'What does Palestine require of us, as writers writing in English from within the imperial core, in this moment of genocide?'
proteanmag.com/2023/12/08/n...
proteanmag.com/2023/12/08/n...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
⟨from the excerpt in Protean Magazine ↑⟩
"This society held onto its image of itself [ ] its moral and cultural system. A significant part of it refused to let go, as if echoing Wasim’s search for the meaning of life, but at the scale of an entire people, the Palestinian people."
"This society held onto its image of itself [ ] its moral and cultural system. A significant part of it refused to let go, as if echoing Wasim’s search for the meaning of life, but at the scale of an entire people, the Palestinian people."
December 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
⟨from the excerpt in Protean Magazine ↑⟩
"This society held onto its image of itself [ ] its moral and cultural system. A significant part of it refused to let go, as if echoing Wasim’s search for the meaning of life, but at the scale of an entire people, the Palestinian people."
"This society held onto its image of itself [ ] its moral and cultural system. A significant part of it refused to let go, as if echoing Wasim’s search for the meaning of life, but at the scale of an entire people, the Palestinian people."
Reposted by Protean Magazine
A sonnet for one of my favourite beasts, originally published in Fourteen Magazine a year or two ago!
December 15, 2025 at 12:54 PM
A sonnet for one of my favourite beasts, originally published in Fourteen Magazine a year or two ago!
Reposted by Protean Magazine
If writing can accomplish anything anymore (or ever could), it’s writing like this: proteanmag.com/2025/11/01/w...
We Had it Coming [EXCERPTS] • Protean Magazine
Three new short stories by Luke O'Neil—"The rules," "How to live," and "Something that was once potentially good"—are excerpted here from his new book of stories, We Had it Coming, out from OR Books.
proteanmag.com
January 18, 2026 at 5:58 PM
If writing can accomplish anything anymore (or ever could), it’s writing like this: proteanmag.com/2025/11/01/w...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
the people yearn for bones proteanmag.com/2025/10/31/r...
Return of the Body Snatchers • Protean Magazine
This Halloween, Kim Kelly digs into the history of medical graverobbing and desecration-for-profit—a long-buried symptom of the heedlessness and abject cruelty of centuries past. Right? Surely nothing...
proteanmag.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:52 PM
the people yearn for bones proteanmag.com/2025/10/31/r...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
2025 was a helluva year for @proteanmag.com – and, if you are able to, you absolutely should chip in to support their work over the ✨year ahead✨, imo.
it's become a tired cliché, but no less accurate to point out: truly independent, high-quality, leftist media could not be more indispensable.
it's become a tired cliché, but no less accurate to point out: truly independent, high-quality, leftist media could not be more indispensable.
2025 End of Year Round-Up | Protean Magazine
Get more from Protean Magazine on Patreon
www.patreon.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM
2025 was a helluva year for @proteanmag.com – and, if you are able to, you absolutely should chip in to support their work over the ✨year ahead✨, imo.
it's become a tired cliché, but no less accurate to point out: truly independent, high-quality, leftist media could not be more indispensable.
it's become a tired cliché, but no less accurate to point out: truly independent, high-quality, leftist media could not be more indispensable.
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Long and great article with @lalehkhalili.bsky.social interviewing @triofrancos.bsky.social!
Can't wait for Riofancos to write about her views on JB Fressoz book about energy transitions. Will lithium be yet another material added in the symbiosis?
@proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Can't wait for Riofancos to write about her views on JB Fressoz book about energy transitions. Will lithium be yet another material added in the symbiosis?
@proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Extractive Frontiers: An Interview With Thea Riofrancos • Protean Magazine
In this extensive, wide ranging interview, Laleh Khalili speaks with Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, the political economy of lithium mining, the poss...
proteanmag.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Long and great article with @lalehkhalili.bsky.social interviewing @triofrancos.bsky.social!
Can't wait for Riofancos to write about her views on JB Fressoz book about energy transitions. Will lithium be yet another material added in the symbiosis?
@proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Can't wait for Riofancos to write about her views on JB Fressoz book about energy transitions. Will lithium be yet another material added in the symbiosis?
@proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Emily Oster is aligned with Conservatives on nearly every important health issue: proteanmag.com/2022/03/22/m...
Motivated Reasoning: Emily Oster's COVID Narratives and the Attack on Public Education • Protean Magazine
Free-market interests used fights over COVID protocols to further privatize K-12 education. Economist Emily Oster, whose research is funded by those groups, has laundered their ideologies and given th...
proteanmag.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Emily Oster is aligned with Conservatives on nearly every important health issue: proteanmag.com/2022/03/22/m...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Haven’t read yet but reminded me of your post: bsky.app/profile/prot...
Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar explored how the ideology of real estate finds geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a turn to unmediated accumulation, exemplified by the egregious “Gaza development plan.”
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
Slumlord Empire • Protean Magazine
In this essay, Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bahndar explore how the ideology of real estate has come to find direct geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a tu...
proteanmag.com
January 4, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Haven’t read yet but reminded me of your post: bsky.app/profile/prot...
"All the while
more and more bones
still stacking up
underhill
with no sign
of the stolen ones
yet
So America said
what’s spoken
is what is
even in possession
So America says
but what’s seen is another matter."
– Ian Maxton, "The Possession"
proteanmag.com/2025/04/08/t...
more and more bones
still stacking up
underhill
with no sign
of the stolen ones
yet
So America said
what’s spoken
is what is
even in possession
So America says
but what’s seen is another matter."
– Ian Maxton, "The Possession"
proteanmag.com/2025/04/08/t...
The Possession • Protean Magazine
Poet Ian Maxton's "The Possession" roams across the "spooked-out American map," surveying the machinery of empire and the scorched landscapes it leaves behind.
proteanmag.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:32 PM
"All the while
more and more bones
still stacking up
underhill
with no sign
of the stolen ones
yet
So America said
what’s spoken
is what is
even in possession
So America says
but what’s seen is another matter."
– Ian Maxton, "The Possession"
proteanmag.com/2025/04/08/t...
more and more bones
still stacking up
underhill
with no sign
of the stolen ones
yet
So America said
what’s spoken
is what is
even in possession
So America says
but what’s seen is another matter."
– Ian Maxton, "The Possession"
proteanmag.com/2025/04/08/t...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
“Recoiling from the crudity of global politics-as-property-development while pining for the “rules-based international order”—the reflex of the very centrist international elites that primed the world for Trump and his ilk—is an exercise in futility”
Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar explored how the ideology of real estate finds geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a turn to unmediated accumulation, exemplified by the egregious “Gaza development plan.”
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
Slumlord Empire • Protean Magazine
In this essay, Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bahndar explore how the ideology of real estate has come to find direct geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a tu...
proteanmag.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM
“Recoiling from the crudity of global politics-as-property-development while pining for the “rules-based international order”—the reflex of the very centrist international elites that primed the world for Trump and his ilk—is an exercise in futility”
Reposted by Protean Magazine
This book by @lukeoneil47.bsky.social is full of beautiful, gut-wrenching prose. I'd call it Cormac McCarthy-esque.
Three new short stories by Luke O’Neil (@lukeoneil47.bsky.social)—"The rules,” “How to live,” and “Something that was once potentially good”—are excerpted here. All three appear in his new book of stories, We Had it Coming and Other Fictions, now out from OR Books.
proteanmag.com/2025/11/01/w...
proteanmag.com/2025/11/01/w...
We Had it Coming [EXCERPTS] • Protean Magazine
Three new short stories by Luke O'Neil—"The rules," "How to live," and "Something that was once potentially good"—are excerpted here from his new book of stories, We Had it Coming, out from OR Books.
proteanmag.com
January 2, 2026 at 4:30 PM
This book by @lukeoneil47.bsky.social is full of beautiful, gut-wrenching prose. I'd call it Cormac McCarthy-esque.
Reposted by Protean Magazine
'Across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, we see a particular kind of real estate development thriving in the absence of territorial integrity and sovereign political authority'
Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar explored how the ideology of real estate finds geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a turn to unmediated accumulation, exemplified by the egregious “Gaza development plan.”
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
proteanmag.com/2025/02/27/s...
Slumlord Empire • Protean Magazine
In this essay, Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bahndar explore how the ideology of real estate has come to find direct geopolitical expression in Trump’s crass drive to acquire territory as “property”—a tu...
proteanmag.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:40 AM
'Across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, we see a particular kind of real estate development thriving in the absence of territorial integrity and sovereign political authority'
This year marked the 8th anniversary of Protean's founding; it was also our busiest yet. Below is a selection of the best work that we published, online and in Issue V.
As ever, readers' generosity is the only reason any of this is possible. Support us by becoming a patron: patreon.com/proteanmag
As ever, readers' generosity is the only reason any of this is possible. Support us by becoming a patron: patreon.com/proteanmag
Get more from Protean Magazine on Patreon
Independent, ad-free leftist magazine: essays, interviews, art
patreon.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:31 PM
This year marked the 8th anniversary of Protean's founding; it was also our busiest yet. Below is a selection of the best work that we published, online and in Issue V.
As ever, readers' generosity is the only reason any of this is possible. Support us by becoming a patron: patreon.com/proteanmag
As ever, readers' generosity is the only reason any of this is possible. Support us by becoming a patron: patreon.com/proteanmag
Reposted by Protean Magazine
"Frontier names a duality where the place is important but the people are unimportant"
Two brilliant scholars @triofrancos.bsky.social@lalehkhalili.bsky.social in conversation, highly recommended!
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Two brilliant scholars @triofrancos.bsky.social@lalehkhalili.bsky.social in conversation, highly recommended!
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Extractive Frontiers: An Interview With Thea Riofrancos • Protean Magazine
In this extensive, wide ranging interview, Laleh Khalili speaks with Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, the political economy of lithium mining, the poss...
proteanmag.com
December 28, 2025 at 12:42 PM
"Frontier names a duality where the place is important but the people are unimportant"
Two brilliant scholars @triofrancos.bsky.social@lalehkhalili.bsky.social in conversation, highly recommended!
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Two brilliant scholars @triofrancos.bsky.social@lalehkhalili.bsky.social in conversation, highly recommended!
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
A good interview here at @proteanmag.com with Mitchell Abidor, whose new book on Victor Serge I'm looking forward to reading, though the revelations of Serge's apparent late-life anti-communism etc. are tough, as I admire so much of his writing.
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
Victor Serge, Turncoat Radical? • Protean Magazine
Andrew Holter interviews Mitchell Abidor on Abidor's new book, Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary, out from Pluto Press. "It seems like we in the English-speaking world, at least, have misunderstood s...
proteanmag.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:30 PM
A good interview here at @proteanmag.com with Mitchell Abidor, whose new book on Victor Serge I'm looking forward to reading, though the revelations of Serge's apparent late-life anti-communism etc. are tough, as I admire so much of his writing.
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
proteanmag.com/2025/12/18/v...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
From “Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide” by Fargo Tbakhi in @proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2023/...
4/4
proteanmag.com/2023/...
4/4
Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide
Fargo Tbakhi writes with this reflective essay on the role and duty of writing in this time of a genocide. How do hegemonic prerogatives dictate style, content, and status? What can words do for us, when words are also the vehicle of cruel ideology?
proteanmag.com
December 30, 2025 at 11:24 AM
From “Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide” by Fargo Tbakhi in @proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2023/...
4/4
proteanmag.com/2023/...
4/4
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Reposted by Protean Magazine
Solidarity with Children by @lalouverouge.bsky.social (at @proteanmag.com)
Horizons of Youth Liberation • Protean Magazine
Sarah Brouillette reviews Madeline Lane-McKinley's new book Solidarity With Children, out this month from Haymarket Books.Sarah Brouillette reviews Madeline Lane-McKinley's new book Solidarity With Ch...
proteanmag.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Solidarity with Children by @lalouverouge.bsky.social (at @proteanmag.com)
Reposted by Protean Magazine
As I'm bombarded with algorithmically served advertisements aimed to induce me to purchase more consumer goods this holiday season, I am reflecting on this essay I wrote six years ago for @proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2019/08/28/s...
proteanmag.com/2019/08/28/s...
Simulacra & Self-Simulation
by Steven Monacelli. If we are what we repeatedly do, then let’s face it: we are becoming increasingly machine-like through our near-constant interactions with technology.
proteanmag.com
December 25, 2025 at 9:35 PM
As I'm bombarded with algorithmically served advertisements aimed to induce me to purchase more consumer goods this holiday season, I am reflecting on this essay I wrote six years ago for @proteanmag.com
proteanmag.com/2019/08/28/s...
proteanmag.com/2019/08/28/s...
Reposted by Protean Magazine
In this wide-ranging interview, Laleh Khalili (@lalehkhalili.bsky.social) speaks with Thea Riofrancos (@triofrancos.bsky.social) about her new book, "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism"—on lithium mining, prospects for a just climate transition, and more.
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
Extractive Frontiers: An Interview With Thea Riofrancos • Protean Magazine
In this extensive, wide ranging interview, Laleh Khalili speaks with Thea Riofrancos about her new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, the political economy of lithium mining, the poss...
proteanmag.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:37 PM
In this wide-ranging interview, Laleh Khalili (@lalehkhalili.bsky.social) speaks with Thea Riofrancos (@triofrancos.bsky.social) about her new book, "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism"—on lithium mining, prospects for a just climate transition, and more.
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...
proteanmag.com/2025/12/22/e...