LARA MESSERSMITH-GLAVIN
Editorial Projects
Lara is on the editorial collective for Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, the house journal for the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS). Perspectives is an annual journal of essays, interviews, book reviews, and organizational updates, and written by activists, organizers, and scholars on the libertarian left.
The latest issue is "Power," beautifully printed by Eberhardt Press of Portland, Oregon, with art design by Gallery of the Streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. To purchase a copy, visit the AK Press website. Copies are $16.
The IAS is a nonprofit foundation established in 1996 to support the development of anarchist ideas. It gives grants to radical writers and translators worldwide; to date, they have funded over a hundred projects by authors from around the world, including Argentina, Lebanon, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Nigeria, Germany, Ukraine, and the United States. The IAS also engages in a number of publishing projects, including Perspectives, the Anarchist Interventions books series (in conjunction with AK Press and Justseeds Artists' Cooperative), and the new Lexicon pamphlet series. The IAS also organizes education events such as conference tracks, talks and panels, and (formerly) the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference.
Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption (2016), by Walidah Imarisha, was published by AK Press in collaboration with Lara via the Institute for Anarchist Studies, and won the Oregon Book Award for Nonfiction.
AK Press also published Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency, edited by Kristian Williams, William Munger, and Lara Messersmith-Glavin.
Counterinsurgency has existed as the state's implicit strategy for a generation, and increasingly this strategy is becoming explicit. In this chilling collection of sociological and political essays, fifteen writers examine the application of domestic counterinsurgency tactics within the United States, and seek to equip the left with a more nuanced understanding of state repression - and how to fight back.
"Together, the writers sound a sobering warning: the American government is an iron fist in a velvet glove whose purpose remains preserving the status quo and enriching the rich...it’s hard to discount the evidence presented here of heavy-handed tactics (injunctions, informants, provocateurs, mass incarceration) that have Democratic and Republican politicians alike up in arms."
- Publishers Weekly (click for full review)