On the evening of July 10th, Trent University English literature professor, Aaron Kreuter, presented the Peterborough launch of his newly-released short story collection, Rubble Children. Take Cover Books hosted the event, which was attended by many of Kreuter’s fellow professors and by Peterborough Poet Laureate, ziysah von bieberstein, who opened the night by reading from their poetry collection, consents +/=/- severances.

bieberstein’s opening of the evening brought a powerful message to the audience, one that “is Jewish, and is about colonization and decolonization.”

The Poet Laureate read the poems “another man’s voice” and “uninvited,” dissecting the Jewish diaspora through an anti-colonial lens, and a fresh, unpublished poem written on a crumpled piece of paper that reminded listeners to give thanks for the land you walk on, and reflect on how you got here.

Kreuter took the stage following bieberstein to introduce his latest publication. Released on July 2nd through the University of Alberta Press, Rubble Children is a collection of “seven and a half” stories told offering a Jewish perspective on settler colonialism, Zionism and anti-Zionism, identity, and the woes of romanticism in a coming of age collection set in Thornhill, Ontario.

During his reading, Kreuter explained that the collection centres around a Jewish community in crisis, revealing that in between the themes of sexual desire and copious amounts of cannabis smoking that takes place on page, Rubble Children depicts how Palestine and settler colonialism are “manifesting in the Jewish collective in this Canadian space.”

Kreuter prefaced his readings by saying that despite the seven and a half stories being full of “rage and anger,” he feels hopeful in his aims “to imagine a better world—Jewish, Palestinian, and otherwise”.

The first story Kreuter read was an excerpt from “Mourning Rituals,” which begins with the death of a father and follows his two children, Joshua and Tamara, who battle polar claims in their Jewish identity during the Shiva. The story, which examines the separation in familial relations, is set in 2014, which Kreuter explained highlights how the war on Gaza has been a constant re-ocurrence. 

“Everyone thinks October 7th was a huge break from what came before, but it really wasn’t. [Gaza] has been attacked and obliterated time and time again. The Israeli army calls it ‘mowing the lawn,’ right? And the one time the lawn mows back, the whole world breaks open,” he said.

Jumping further in the collection, Kreuter read a section from “Holy Days” starring a Jewish teenager and his friends smoking out of a makeshift pumpkin bong in his garage on Halloween. Kreuter shared that this particular story was inspired by Jewish holidays and the habits of an early 2000s pothead.

Kreuter concluded his Rubble Children reading with the last story in the collection, “A Handful of Days a Handful of Worlds”. In a Groundhog Day style, the characters in this story live out May 2nd, 2013, on repeat as different versions of a breakup between the main characters Katie and Brenda play out, alongside alternate, reimagined versions of Palestine featured in the background.

“It’s all these different imaginings of different ways Palestine could have turned out with the Jewish presence sort of scattered throughout” he prefaced.

Kreuter then spontaneously read the poem “To a Palestinian Cousin” from his book Shifting Baseline Syndrome after completing his readings from Rubble Children, sharing that he felt inspired to do so after hearing bieberstein’s introductory selections.

Following his reading, Arthur caught up with Kreuter to inquire more about the genesis of this collection, and the inspiration behind it.

With regards to the title of the collection, Kreuter shared that “Rubble Children” is a term coined by the Germans born after World War Two who were born in the rubble of their country. In his collection, Kreuter employs the term as a reference to a group of thirteen year old women obsessed with the Holocaust who dub themselves as such, only to come to the conclusion at the end of the story that “they are not the only children of the rubble.”

Notably, Rubble Children is a collection with seven and a half short stories. When asked about the fractional story, Kreuter said that it was a “tounge-and-cheek” reference to the number seven, which is a very important number in Judaism, and repeats throughout the collection. 

Kreuter also shared that this collection was completed far before the events of October 7th, calling the publishing timeline an “unbelievable topicality” for a collection to hit the shelves discussing the Israeli colonialism of Palestine. 

“I hope fans would understand that change is possible, and diffused through the entire collection is that the first step on that journey is acceptance of what’s actually happened,” he shared, adding that it’s important that his work “brings a strong anti-zionist message, but also so deeply Jewish message to Canada, Israel, and Palestine to decouple Zionism from being synonymous with being Jewish, and as much the fault of Zionism as it is, that a different Jewish world is possible.”

The final acknowledgement in Rubble Children reads “Finally, this book is dedicated for all the children who live and who die in the rubble; may we be held accountable, may we build a world without borders, without bombs, without rubble.”

‍Rubble Children, Shifting Baseline Syndrome, and consents +/=/- severances are all available to purchase at Take Cover Books online or in-store.