Read This When Things Fall Apart
Letters to Activists in Crisis
AK Press · Print & ebook · November 14, 2025
A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable.
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- Who it’s for
- Letters that meet crisis without pretending it’s tidy.
- Genres
- Activism & Social Justice, Managing Emotions, Feminist Theory & Criticism
- Published
- AK Press, November 14, 2025
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A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable. Campaigns will be lost. Mental health crises will occur. Social ills, like gender-based violence, will manifest themselves in movement spaces. People will experience profound personal losses. Grief, alienation, and despair can grind us under. Sometimes, we need accompaniment.
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Sometimes, we need to be met where we’re at by a caring voice of experience. Read This When Things Fall Apart is a care package for activists and organizers building power under fascistic, demoralizing conditions. It’s an outstretched hand, offering history lessons, personal anecdotes, and practical advice about how to navigate the woes of justice work. A survival guide for the heart, this is a book for activists to keep close, and to share with co-strugglers in need. Personal, reflective, and hopeful, Read This When Things Fall Apart harnesses the writers' individual moments of despair into living, breathing wisdom that chips away at the supposed inevitability of fascist life. Restorative like a letter from a trusted friend and invigorating like a story from a mentor, the book is an indispensable companion for all of us navigating challenging times. Featuring letters from Mariame Kaba, Ashon Crawley, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Eman Abdelhadi, Brian Merchant, and more.
Steady Dispatches
Letters that meet crisis without pretending it’s tidy.
Come here for
- letters shaped for crisis
- daily dip-in reading
Expect
- radical politics with a human scale
- short, steady reads
Where it sits
| Activism & Social Justice | 90% |
|---|---|
| Feminist Theory & Criticism | 37% |
| Managing Emotions | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Political Commentary
- Ethnic Studies
- Feminist Theory & Criticism
- Authors
- Kelly Hayes
- Publisher
- AK Press
- Published
- November 14, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Political Commentary