Protean Magazine

“‘This is a story about resilience, and hope,’ affirms Pawel. The UC Regents, battered from the right for being too woke and from the left for collaborating with Trumpism, will breathe a sigh of relief when they (or their PR departments) read this book." proteanmag.com/2026/10/10/i...

“‘This is a story about resilience, and hope,’ affirms Pawel. The UC Regents, battered from the right for being too woke and from the left for collaborating with Trumpism, will breathe a sigh of relief when they (or their PR departments) read this book." proteanmag.com/2026/10/10/i...

Tony Platt reviews the new book by Miriam Pawel, “California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California.” Pawel’s focus on individual success, he writes, elides both radical traditions and unethical practices that are inextricable from UC history. proteanmag.com/2026/10/10/i...

proteanmag.com/2025/11/01/w...

Tony Platt reviews the new book by Miriam Pawel, “California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California.” Pawel’s focus on individual success, he writes, elides both radical traditions and unethical practices that are inextricable from UC history. proteanmag.com/2026/10/10/i...

Andrew Holter interviewed Tom Overton, author of a new biography, “John Berger: From Life,” out from @versobooks.bsky.social. In this fascinating discussion, Overton discusses his friendship with Berger, the biography’s literary approach, Berger on Gaza, and more. proteanmag.com/2026/09/23/t...

We’re pleased to reveal the cover and theme of our newest lovingly crafted print edition: Protean Issue VI: Detritivores. Featuring essays and poetry by Hanif Abdurraqib, Kate Wagner (@katewagner.wehwalt.net), Bayan Haddad, Fargo Tbakhi, Andy Hines (@andyhines.bsky.social) and many more.

Excerpt: Mawwal, M. Darwish I lost a beautiful dream, I lost the scent of the lilies, and my night was long, … But I never lost my way! The palm of my hand is now accustomed to the wounds of hope ... If I bow my head, a hill will bow, and a sky will vanish ... proteanmag.com/2026/10/07/p...

A sometimes unfair but in the round pretty devastating critique of a book that I continue to describe as 'worth reading' (it's only like 10 pages long anyway) proteanmag.com/2026/03/26/h...

When universities respond to protest, what does “neutrality” mean? Andy Hines examines student protest, political pressure and dissent, connecting Vanderbilt’s 2024 crackdown to its treatment of James Lawson. proteanmag.com/2024/04/29/d...

Today we're honored to publish two short excerpts from the upcoming translation of Palestinian revolutionary and writer Ghassan Kanafani’s Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation, 1948–1968, alongside a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. proteanmag.com/2026/10/07/p...

Huge thanks to Lit Hub for featuring a sneak peak at the forthcoming print issue of @proteanmag.com lithub.com/celebrate-th...

Many thanks to LitHub for highlighting Protean: Issue VI as one of their #LitMagWeek recommendations. Keep an eye out for our release of the full Issue VI cover and table of contents very soon! lithub.com/celebrate-th...

For @proteanmag.com I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Overton about his new @versobooks.bsky.social biography of John Berger, which I've been awaiting for years

Ways of Seeing is maybe the most influential piece of television in my life, instantly need to track this down

“As an art critic, [Berger] had a unique ability to describe the great paintings of the past in a way which made his readers feel the canon belonged to them, that it was theirs to do what they wanted with.” – Tom Overton proteanmag.com/2026/09/23/t...

Andrew Holter interviewed Tom Overton, author of a new biography, “John Berger: From Life,” out from @versobooks.bsky.social. In this fascinating discussion, Overton discusses his friendship with Berger, the biography’s literary approach, Berger on Gaza, and more. proteanmag.com/2026/09/23/t...

Kyle Carrero Lopez’s poem “Itinerary” ambles across psychic shorelines, exploring the ways in which capitalism structures the family-form. proteanmag.com/2026/09/20/i...

In “Making Trouble at the Airport," A.R. Zarif deploys swirling phrasal repetition to explore the psychological fallout from post-War on Terror airport security. proteanmag.com/2026/09/13/m...

From the Vanderbilt Report, Vanderbilt’s “First Principles,” to its expansion into NYC and planned AI campus in Florida, Daniel Diermeier is at the forefront of many of the worst developments in higher ed proteanmag.com/2024/04/29/d...

I’m once again tapping the sign proteanmag.com/2026/03/26/h...

In "art from the artist," poet Paul Ukrainets meditates on the work of poetry and the limits of the poetic imagination: "That sacred dream I learned as / worth wanting: to peddle images." proteanmag.com/2026/09/19/a...

We’re here tabling as a cosponsor at the Haymarket @socialismconference.org—come say hello!

proteanmag.com/2026/04/02/h...

I think this piece is a very important read ⬇️

Andy Hines on how profit incentive, prestige-seeking, and student repression intersect at elite universities. Despite institutions’ public commitments to free expression, willingness to quash protests can in fact be a selling point. www.proteanmag.com/2024/04/29/discipline-and-protest/

FROM THE ARCHIVES 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/2023/12/08/n...

Subscribers will not only receive Issue 6 upon release—we’re also giving away this wall-size poster of original art to all new sign-ups, while they last. Support independent left media (and get plenty in return) and subscribe for as little as 50¢ a week. patreon.com/proteanmag

This is a great piece from Dylan Saba. For those who recoil at its implications, the challenge is constructing a narrative for defeating fascism that connects the "promise" of America to a final, and full, rejection of Settler Colonialism. proteanmag.com/2026/07/27/t...

Andy Hines on how profit incentive, prestige-seeking, and student repression intersect at elite universities. Despite institutions’ public commitments to free expression, willingness to quash protests can in fact be a selling point. www.proteanmag.com/2024/04/29/discipline-and-protest/

NOW UP In “Parable of the Modern Day Hijrah,” poet Isra Hassan reflects on the fraught meanings of pilgrimage in contemporary Islam. proteanmag.com/2026/08/07/p...

In “red script of questions,” poet Ali Choudhary creates a harrowing dialogue with the children of Gaza as they continue to endure Israel’s genocide. Ali will appear in the forthcoming print issue of Protean Magazine. proteanmag.com/2026/02/11/r...

FROM THE ARCHIVES Antigone 11 by Fargo Tbakhi when power decreed that body un-grievable, / everyone made mourning like a pet. Fargo Tbakhi will appear in the forthcoming edition of Protean Magazine.

For almost a decade, we raised the funds for writer pay and print runs by offering pre-orders, which served as an annual fundraiser. That’s no longer viable. If Protean is going to continue as a forum for the left, we’re going to need our readers’ help. patreon.com/proteanmag

In “Pantone® Colour of the Year: A Consumer Review,” poet Momtaza Mehri meditates on greenness as a volatile signifier of ecological collapse, neocolonial violence, and commodity circulation. proteanmag.com/2026/07/26/p...

In “The Enemies of 1776,” Dylan Saba marks the nation's 250th by examining the long continuity in the U.S.’s genocidal wars on the global frontier—from the Indian Wars, the Philippines, and Vietnam to the Israeli-U.S. genocide in Gaza. proteanmag.com/2026/07/27/t...

If you've ever read an (ad-free!) article or poem in Protean, consider becoming a subscriber! As a nonprofit, the vast majority of our funds go toward compensating the creative and analytical labor of our writers and artists. Every dollar that goes to Protean Magazine is a dollar well spent.

FROM THE ARCHIVES Andy Hines traces the lines of power between U.S. educational and healthcare institutions. Campuses and corporatized administrations are loci of profit—from leveraging real estate and debt to driving “urban renewal,” redlining, and racist policing. proteanmag.com/2022/09/08/t...

Protean Magazine has always been ad-free and editorially independent. In order to keep growing, and sharpening our offerings, we’re asking our supporters to formally subscribe to the print magazine, for as little as $5 a month or $48 a year. Subscribe via patreon.com/proteanmag

Thanks to our new subscribers who've already signed up! If you were planning to place a print pre-order, as so many of you have done in past years—our system has changed. Becoming a subscriber is now the ONLY way to receive Issue 6 in print. Join here: patreon.com/proteanmag

Poet Jon Hoel's “In a Generous Way” navigates grief through the history of Spanish fascism: “I return to my past again,” he writes, “a gibbon / in the maw of loss.” proteanmag.com/2026/07/23/i...

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For almost a decade, we raised the funds for writer pay and print runs by offering pre-orders, which served as an annual fundraiser. That’s no longer viable. If Protean is going to continue as a forum for the left, we’re going to need our readers’ help. patreon.com/proteanmag