I’m Michael Riordon, a Canadian writer and documentary-maker.
Our Way to Fight: peace-work under siege in Israel-Palestine is my fifth book. It emerges from four years of intensive research, two journeys, and encounters with more than sixty grassroots peace and human rights activists in Palestine and Israel.
For almost four decades I’ve generated books and articles, audio, video and film documentaries, and plays for radio and stage.
A primary goal of my work is to recover voices of people who have been silenced in the mainstream, including First Nations (aboriginal) youth, Mozambican farmers, inmates in Canadian prisons, traditional healers in Fiji, queer folk across Canada, Guatemalan labour activists, and now, peace-workers in Israel-Palestine.
Each of these voices adds an essential piece to the evolving human story, our collective work-in-progress. Together they challenge the noisy monotone of the official version, and honour the chaotic diversity of life.
My previous book, An Unauthorized Biography of the World, explores similar recovery projects in several countries, including Israel and Palestine.
I also lead courses, workshops and seminars for community organizations, trade unions, schools, colleges and universities.
I live with my partner in rural Canada.
Hi Michael,
You wrote to me some months ago for suggestions of possible reviewers for your book, which I provide. Since then, I lost your email address and was also unable to attend your presentation in Vancouver because of work commitments (needing to get up at 5 a.m. . . .). In any case, I’m currently reading your book and enjoying it immensely. It’s written in a way that makes me want to find out “what will happen next,” despite the fact that I know what happened next–and know many of your interviewees. That said, I think the difference in our approaches and the fact that we don’t overlap all that much in the people and organizations we focused on, makes the books complementary rather than in competition, of which I am glad. I found a great review of your book on the Challenge Magazine website and have linked to it from my book blog. In case you’re interested, the address is http://refusingtobeenemiesthebook.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/our-way-to-fight-by-michael-riordan/ .
Best wishes,
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta
MaxineKL@shaw.ca