Andrew Zonneveld
Independent historian, writer, social ecologist, publisher, organizer, and freelance editor
About ME
I was born and raised in DeKalb County, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. I’m still here, and for most of my life, I’ve been involved in collaborative efforts aimed at creating strong communities through writing, publishing, education, and advocacy. I got involved in anti-war and migrant solidarity activism in the early 2000s and have remained active in social movements in my community ever since.
In 2012 I co-founded On Our Own Authority!, a radical publishing house based here in Atlanta. Our goal was to publish works that emphasized themes of direct democracy, social ecology, and the direct self-emancipation of oppressed peoples. We’ve published about 20 books so far. Our most widely known titles are Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations, and Essays and Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom, both written by Dr. Modibo Kadalie, an elder of the Civil Rights, Black Power, Pan-Africanist, and Social Ecology movements. I had the pleasure and honor of writing introductions to both volumes.
In 2016, I co-founded the Atlanta Radical Book Fair with a small group of experienced local activists and our friends at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American History and Culture, with whom we had collaborated to develop a series of author events and community conversations in Atlanta since 2012. At the annual Atlanta Radical Book Fair, we host left-wing anti-authoritarian authors, speakers, publishers, booksellers, and community organizations from across the southeastern region and beyond.
In 2017 I was invited onto the Convening Council of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology in Midway, Georgia. The institute is a gathering place for researchers based mostly on the Georgia coast with interests in the region’s history of self-emancipation movements. ARIDDSE members work collaboratively to develop, publish, and promote each other’s work.
From 2017 until 2019, I was also a member of the AK Press collective, where I worked as a project editor on a number of noteworthy books, including As Black as Resistance by Zoe Samudzi and William C. Anderson, and Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown, which was a New York Times Bestseller.
I earned a Georgia Master Naturalist certification in 2020 and have worked as a preschool teacher and naturalist educator with two local preschools, until the summer of 2022, when I accepted a full-time position as a union organizer with United Campus Workers of Georgia.
In January 2023, I was among the co-founders of Community Books of Stone Mountain, a volunteer-run bookstore focusing on social movement history and stories of liberation. The store hosts regular community events in the form of film screenings, author presentations, teach-ins, and facilitated community conversations. In December of that year, I was appointed to the City of Stone Mountain’s Planning Commission.
Throughout my career, I have worked as a freelance copy editor and indexer for manuscripts published by university presses and independent publishers. Editorial work is a passion of mine and I am currently accepting new projects. Please feel free to contact me at the links below for inquiries.
Published Works
Andrew Zonneveld, “The Okefenokee Swamp: It’s Radical History and Social Ecology,” Mergoat Magazine, Summer 2024.
“Modibo Kadalie and Andrew Zonneveld, Direct Democracy Throughout History (Asheville: Final Straw Radio, 2023)
Andrew Zonneveld, “The 1526 Anti-Slavery Rebellion and the Birth of Afro-Indigenous Maroonage in Georgia,” Orobo Journal, 18 October 2023.
Andrew Zonneveld, “State Power and the Masculinization of Science,” Orobo Journal, 22 September 2023.
Nani Ferreira-Mathews and Andrew Zonneveld, eds., Why Anarchists Don’t Vote: Radical Criticisms of Representative Government (Atlanta: On Our Own Authority!, 2022).
Andrew Zonneveld, “Digging For Democracy: History and Archeology from Below,” ROAR Magazine, 17 March 2022.
Modibo Kadalie and Andrew Zonneveld, “Pan-Africanism, Social Ecology, and Direct Democracy,” ROAR Magazine, 25 January 2022.
Andrew Zonneveld, “Modibo Kadalie’s Critical Historiography of North American Maroonage,” in Modibo Kadalie, Intimate Direct Democracy: Fort Mose, the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Human Quest for Freedom (Atlanta: On Our Own Authority!, 2022).
Modibo Kadalie and Andrew Zonneveld, “Pan-Africanism, Social Ecology, and Intimate Direct Democracy,” in Cindy Milstein editor, Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy (Chico: AK Press, 2020).
Andrew Zonneveld, “Radical Politics, Labor Revolt, and the Life of Sen Katayama,” in Sen Katayama, The Labor Movement in Japan [1918] (Atlanta: On Our Own Authority!, 2014).
Andrew Zonneveld, editor, To Remain Silent is Impossible: Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in Russia (Atlanta: On Our Own Authority!, 2013).
Andrew Zonneveld, editor, The Commune: Paris, 1871 (Atlanta: On Our Own Authority!, 2013).
Article LINKS
The 1526 Anti-Slavery Rebellion and the Birth of Afro-Indigenous Maroonage in Georgia
Orobo Journal
October 18, 2023
Digging For Democracy: History and Archaeology from Below
ROAR Magazine
March 17, 2022
Re-learning the Past to Re-imagine the Future: An interview with Modibo Kadalie
ROAR Magazine
January 25, 2022
Audio and Video
Direct Democracy Throughout Human History: Modibo Kadalie with Andrew Zonneveld
Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair
August 12, 2023
A Conversation with Modibo Kadalie & Andrew Zonneveld on Intimate Direct Democracy
Srsly Wrong (Podcast)
April 22, 2022
Pan-Africanism, Social Ecology, and Direct Democracy: Modibo Kadalie and Andrew Zonneveld in Conversation
Firestorm Books (Web event)
June 20, 2020
Against Electoralism: A conversation with Nani Ferreira-Mathews and Andrew Zonneveld
Firestorm Books (Web event)
August 11, 2022
Get in touch
Inquiries regarding freelance copy-editing are welcome. References available upon request.
Andrew Zonneveld 