Two days after Alex Pretti was murdered by federal ICE agents in Minneapolis, on January 24, 2026, we published a “Letter From Minnesota” from the poet Dobby Gibson. As I wrote at the time of the federal government’s violent occupation of the Twin Cities:
Anak-anak dan keluarga mereka telah dipisahkan, sekolah-sekolah telah ditargetkan, dan dua warga negara AS—Renee Good dan Alex Pretti—telah dibunuh di jalan. Dalam beberapa minggu ke depan kami akan menerbitkan surat-surat dari orang-orang Minnesota—novelis, jurnalis, penyair, memoiris—yang mereka bisa membagikan pengalaman mereka, sebagai saksi dan peringatan, tentang otoritarianisme Amerika.
That first letter turned into forty-four, in a series that would run until February 20. These letters have now been collected—along with a dozen new contributions—in American Occupation, an anthology to be published by the University of Minnesota Press on January 26, 2027, edited by myself and Twin Cities poet Su Hwang. We’re very proud to reveal the cover, below, designed by Jeff Clark.
As the press release notes:
American Occupation documents an extraordinary outpouring of literary witness while the memory and consequences of Operation Metro Surge continue to reverberate in communities across the country. More than a record of a single moment, American Occupation places Operation Metro Surge in conversation with the longer history of American expansion, imperialism, borders, and the US government’s abuse of power against its own civilians. The collection asks readers to consider what happens when the machinery of occupation turns inward, and what forms of resistance become possible when ordinary people refuse to accept terror as normal.
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AMERICAN OCCUPATION
KONTRIBUTOR
Angela Ajayi • Anonim • Charles Baxter • Victoria Blanco • Jennifer Eli Bowen • Katherine Packert Burke • Zeke Caligiuri • David Aiona Chang • Dana Chiueh • Heid E. Erdrich • Nick Estes • Nimo Farah • V.V. Ganeshananthan • Shannon Gibney • Dobby Gibson • Sarah Green • Molly Beth Griffin • Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl • Marian Hassan • Hedgiee • Laurie Hertzel • Carolyn Holbrook • Siri Hustvedt • Đenise Hạnh Huỳnh • Andrea Jenkins • Michael Kleber-Diggs • Ed Bok Lee • Josina Manu Maltzman • Will McGrath • Jim Moore • David Mura • Nia Navarro • Sahra Noor • Kara Olson • Peter Pearson • Angela Pelster • Bao Phi • Kaia Preus • Susan Raffo • Marcie Rendon • Kate Romero dan Gustavo Romero • Sean Sherman • Sun Yung Shin • Gabriela Spears-Rico • Michael Torres • Kawai Strong Washburn • Sana Wazwaz • chaun webster • Diane Wilson • A.E. Wynter • Kao Kalia Yang • Ahmed Ismail Yusuf • Michelle Zamanian.
