A new book from the 3 Hole family!
Our Red Book: Intimate Histories of Periods, Growing & Changing
Dear 3 Hole family,
MML here.
I’m writing with news about a brand new book—not one that we are publishing, but one that our director, founder, and force-behind-all-things-good, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, will be releasing into the world on November 1st!
Our Red Book is a collection of stories about periods and blood: first periods, final periods, missed periods, menopause. The tellers of these stories are teenagers, octogenarians, activists, midwives, Indigenous scholars, fathers, people transitioning genders, and incarcerated writers. (And many of the tellers of these stories are 3 Hole artists and those who make books with us—more on that below!) But the reader’s guide through all of these personal histories is Rachel, whose voice is at once reassuring while she is also learning alongside the reader about how many ways there are to be a body and a brain in this world.
Some of the 3 Hole family involved in the project include artists whose plays we have published—Agnes Borinsky (Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8) and Daaimah Mubashshir (The Immeasurable Want of Light). Our Red Book also shares writing from our beloved publishing fellow, Mariana Roa Oliva, and from close collaborators, Simran Ankolkar, Emily Mast, Michelle Memran, Sarah Ruhl, and Caitlin Ryan O’Connell. (I, Mary Marge, also interviewed my aunts for the project. It was a lot of fun.) Even more of you shaped this book behind the scenes!
When I got my copy of Our Red Book, I was excited. But I did not expect to sit down with it, to flip through to the names of folks I knew, and then read not just their work but every essay, interview, graphic memoir, in between, in a single evening. It is a book that I both wish I had as a teenager and rejoice in having as an adult. It’s a bridging of cultures, generations, and ideas for the future. It’s a beautiful reckoning with the pain of change, the promise of utopia, and the power of collective narrative.
If you are in NYC, allow us to recommend supporting intersectional feminist bookstore Café con Libros and 3 Hole favorite, Unnameable Books. The book is also available in the UK here.
Rachel and contributors will be launching the book in several cities on both coasts, but we are also super excited to share an invitation to an online launch, including readings from contributors all over the world.
NEW YORK CITY LAUNCH & PARTY!
Wednesday, November 2, 7:00 PM
McNally Jackson Seaport (with ASL interpretation)
RSVP here
NEW HAVEN READING!
Saturday, November 5, 1:00 PM
The Institute Library
ONLINE LAUNCH!
Wednesday, Nov 9, 6:30 PM EST
Café con Libros via Crowdcast (with ASL interpretation)
Register here
LOS ANGELES READING!
Friday, November 11, 7:30 PM
Skylight Books
I’m so excited for this book to be out in the world. We reckon that by being a 3 Hole reader, you are invested in the questions that are also behind this project, namely: how can language live and tremble on the page. I hope you will celebrate Our Red Book alongside us.
MML