My guest on the show this week, is Sim Kern, an author whose work I came across only recently. Alongside being a published author, Sim is a content creator, using Instagram and Tik Tok as key tools in her activist life, making videos that inform, educate and empower. Sim is an anti-zionist Jew, dedicating huge amounts of time to the Palestinian liberation movement, while dismantling Israeli propaganda and narratives about the Zionist colonial project. At the time of recording, the genocidal war on Gaza has been taking place for almost 4 months, with over 30,000 people in Gaza having been killed. Over a million people have been displaced from their homes and are starving, living without clean water, shelter, healthcare, and have nowhere safe to go.  Sim Kern is a Gulf Coast author and environmental journalist writing about climate change, queer identity, and social justice. Their debut horror novella, Depart, Depart!, was selected for the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award. Their short story collection, Real Sugar is Hard to Find, was hailed in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as, “a searing, urgent, but still achingly tender work that will wow any reader of speculative fiction.” As a journalist, they report on petrochemical polluters and drag space billionaires. Sim’s latest novel is called The Free People's Village, set in an alternative reality of 2020, where a war on climate change has been announced.  You can find Sim on social media here: www.instagram.com/sim_bookstagrams_badly https://www.tiktok.com/@simkern If you enjoyed this episode, please do let me know! I'd love it if you could follow, subscribe and leave a review. Come find me on social media :) www.instagram.com/readwithsamia www.instagram.com/thediversebookshelfpod Also, if you'd like to support the podcast, you can now join my community on Patreon. When you subscribe, you could get access to a special exclusive episode directly to your inbox every month! www.patreon.com/thediversebookshelfpodcast  Support the show