By the Book: Julia Stern, '26
Julia (they/she) is a junior from New York City studying History and Environmental Studies. They work as a Library Associate in the Friends Historical Library, and they’re an organizer on campus with Jewish Voice for Peace, SJP, and C4. They love spending most of their time in libraries and bookstores and have strong opinions about books and music. One of their favorite places on earth is the Lesbian Herstory Archives in NYC and they collect lesbian pulp fiction.
What are you reading these days? I'm currently reading Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel and Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abelhadi. For one of my classes I'm reading Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Sadiya Hartman which is absolutely life-changing.
Describe your favorite place to read on campus: I love reading in my room in Roberts next to my roommates and my best friend Hannah Briethaupt. We love to recommend each other books and then read them side by side, analyzing our favorite passages. I also love reading by Crum Creek!
Is there a book you've read multiple times? I regularly reread Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin and find it incredibly therapeutic. It makes me feel like someone published my inner monologue.
Is there a book you pretend to have read? It's been five years and I still haven't finished Mrs. Dalloway...
Who is your favorite author? It is impossible for me to choose just one! Some of my all time faves are Akwaeke Emezi, James Baldwin, Susan Abulhawa, and Audre Lorde.
What literary character would you most like to be friends with? It is really hard to choose just one. I’d love to meet Nahr from Against the Loveless World. I would also love to befriend Nan King, the Victorian oyster girl and drag king from Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet. Also the entirety of the Butch Piano Players’ Union from Hannah Levene’s Greasepaint. We would argue about being spiritual (or maybe literal?) descendants of Emma Goldman and have long conversations about Yiddish radicalism, dyke bars, and NYC lesbianism.
What is your favorite reading genre? Contemporary queer literary fiction, particularly the niche genre of pulpy millennial lesbian autofiction (Jenny Fran Davis, Anna Dorn, etc.)
What book do you recommend most often? I am constantly referencing Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg and Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and pestering everyone I know to read them. I also recently read Let This Radicalize You by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes, and I think everyone losing hope in society or despairing after finishing the Parable duology needs to read it.
What's the best movie adaptation of a book you've read? Shrek. Even though his name literally means terrible/scary in Yiddish, Book Shrek is too scary. I don’t know if this really counts as an adaptation, but my serious answer is the documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, which I watched right after finishing Angela Davis’ autobiography.
What author would you most like to meet and what would you ask them? I already got to meet her this year, but Naomi Klein. I will take this opportunity to brag that she signed my copy of the Shock Doctrine (another book I’ve been reading for years but pretend to have finished) and she told me to stay brave. I asked her some questions about fighting the weaponization of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian protestors and the suppression of antizionist students on college campuses.
What book made an early impact on you and why? I loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret because of the incredible illustrations of Parisian train stations. I also reread When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead a lot when I was little. I don’t really remember what the plot of it was now, but I know it blew my mind.
