Published in the Fall 2023 Issue of Caustic Frolic (the journal of the NYU Graduate School of Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement), “The Last Abduction” is a short story that reflects on the experiences of an alien & a young boy, coming to terms with hyper-militarization in the West Bank.
Read the full story here. CW: depictions/allusions to graphic violence/death.
One interesting thing about the inspiration of this story, the artist Ampydoo (Alan Michael Parker) put out a call for drawings of aliens, and I drew one up on my iPad (above). Then I naturally started thinking about this alien (as one does) and the backstory to his life. I also happened to need to write a short story for my summer 2023 term fiction writing workshop (at UCF). Thankfully, my car needed service and there were no loaners available. “The Last Abduction” was borne from a mix of being trapped in the car dealership with way too much gratis coffee and Lotus biscuits (so good!). Given the subject-nature, I am so thankful that the editors and team at Caustic Frolic saw something special and chose to stand behind this story, particularly at this time when the efforts to silence voices in the Palestinian liberation movement are particularly strong.