Critical Literary Consumption
Episodes
"Fetishized": A Reckoning/Reawakening (with Kaila Yu)
29 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kaila Yu's Fetishized: A Reckoning With Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty is written as memoir-in-essays that serves as media and cultural analys...
The Cat-Centered Novel (with Tanya Guerrero)
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tanya Guerrero shares how her love of animals and her volunteer experiences with Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) shaped her first adult novel, Cat’s Peopl...
The Many Biopedagogies of Sugar (with Dr. Karen Throsby)
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Karen Throsby, author of Sugar Rush: Science, politics and the demonisation of fatness, discusses how the public and scientific framings of sugar...
"Shakespeare Will Not Save Us" (with Dr. Matthieu Chapman)
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Matthieu Chapman previews his forthcoming book, Shakespeare and Antiblack World-making, in which reflects on the fields of Pre-Modern Critical Rac...
The Story and Method of Slow Noodles (with Chantha Nguon)
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Calling Slow Noodles her one story, Chantha Nguon recounts being hesitant to write about her life until her collaborator, Kim Green, suggested that sh...
Ubiquitous Marriages and Sociological Analysis in Rental House (with Weike Wang)
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Following Chemistry and Joan Is Okay, Weike Wang again reflects on labor, home, place, and identity in Rental House, a novel that follows an inter...
Form and Feelings (with Brandon Shimoda)
07 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brandon Shimoda discusses his pursuit of similar questions during his writing and research for his two longer books, The Grave on the Wall and The Aft...
Poetry As a Genre, a Form, a Method (with Chen Chen)
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chen Chen talks about genre, creative writing pedagogy, race, and politics as he reflects on his two full-length poetry collections, When I Grow Up I ...
On Completing the Mythic Triptych and Making Metaphors Literal (with K-Ming Chang)
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To celebrate Halloween and the season of extremes, K-Ming Chang returns to discuss Organ Meats, which is the final story in her mythic triptych (or wh...
Troubling the Human + Material Witness/ing(with Aditi Machado)
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Aditi Machado previews her upcoming poetry collection, Material Witness (Nightboat Books), and reflects on the concept and act of "witnessing". Witnes...
Legal Fictions & Blood Quantum (with Morgan Talty)
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Morgan Talty shares his thoughts on this peculiar thing called genre and his experiences writing short stories (Night of the Living Rez) and a novel (...
The Manicurist’s Daughter: On Nail Salons, On Revenge, On Justice, On Performing (with Susan Lieu)
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My diaCritics book review focused and critiqued this ever recurring topic of nostalgia in diasporic memoirs, and Lieu shares her own thoughts on criti...
"To Think About Sex Work Differently, We Need to Think About Sex Differently" (with Dr. Juana María Rodríguez)
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To think about sex work differently, Dr. Juana María Rodríguez (University of California, Berkeley) argues that we too will need to think about sex ...
Art Criticism and the Black Imagination (with Erica N. Cardwell)
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Erica N. Cardwell reflects on writing Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art, a possible anti-memoir that features essays on the importance of art...
Afropessimism and Writing Shattered (with Dr. Matthieu Chapman)
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Matthieu Chapman discusses his experiences with genre shift from academic writing to his beautiful hybrid memoir, Shattered: Fragments of a Black ...
Essaying ‘The Loneliness Files” (with Athena Dixon)
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the new year, I talked to Athena Dixon about the release of her latest book, The Loneliness Files: A Memoir in Essays. She shares ...
'To Be An Adult Immigrant is to Lead a Life with 4 Senses, Instead of 5' (with Nishanth Injam)
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Nishanth Injam's stunning debut collection, The Best Possible Experience, examines the social ails of life abroad as an adult immigrant. In th...
Reading Trauma in Colonialism and Being Misread (with Dr. Noreen Masud)
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her debut book, A Flat Place: A Memoir, Dr. Noreen Masud traces the longstanding impacts of colonialism in flat places and landscapes while sharing...
Resistance and 'Radical Intimacy' (with Sophie K. Rosa)
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What would resistance against capitalism and neoliberalism look like in the intimate sphere is one of the major questions Sophie K. Rosa reflects upon...
The Making of a 'Modern' Thailand (with Mai Nardone)
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Mai Nardone talks about his first book, the story collection Welcome Me to the Kingdom, which spans four decades and traces urbanization of the late ...
Extrapolating Geographies and Intertextuality (with Lamya H.)
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lamya H. speaks about writing an unapologetically queer and Muslim text in her debut work, Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir, which chronicles her formative...
The Pleasure of the Text In the Kitchen, In Domestic Spaces, In Theories of the Body (with Rebecca May Johnson)
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rebecca May Johnson charts her writing and thinking processes in what became her first book, Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen, a text that embodies...
‘Monetary Authorities’: Racial Capitalism and Unconditional Decolonization (with Dr. Allan E. S. Lumba)
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Allan E.S. Lumba (Concordia University), author of Monetary Authorities: Capitalism and Decolonization in the American Colonial Philippines, discu...
Technocapitalism, Nostalgia, and Pop Culture (with Jinwoo Chong)
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In anticipation of his debut novel, Jinwoo Chong shares the genealogy of writing Flux, an ambitious novel told through multiple perspectives. Chong ta...
‘How Do the Living Come Back to Life?’ (with Morgan Talty)
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Morgan Talty’s debut story collection, Night of the Living Rez, poignantly contemplates, examines, subverts idealized understandings of community, i...
Symmetry/Asymmetry of Language and Translation (with Su Cho)
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Su Cho’s debut poetry collection, The Symmetry of Fish, examines the stories of language through relationships, food, space, and places. She shares ...
Untangling 'Trauma, Tresses, & Truth' (with Lyzette Wanzer)
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lyzette Wanzer ruminates on the events leading up to the conception of her edited volume Trauma, Tresses, & Truth: Untangling Our Hair Through Per...
'Sonic Memories' and Silences (with Cija Jefferson)
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cija Jefferson reflects on her experiences in an MFA program, craft, community, and revision. Her MFA project, Sonic Memories and Other Essays, is her...
An American Education Through Illness and Nourishment (with Dure Aziz Amna)
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dure Aziz Amna talks about writing her debut novel, American Fever, using tuberculosis as a motif to explore questions of who is responsible for high ...
Black German Studies and Transnational Collectivity (with Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil)
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil (University of New Mexico) shares how her research on the history of social movements, subculture activist archives, Germany, a...
Translation As Literary (Co)Creation (with Nguyễn An Lý)
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nguyễn An Lý talks about her experiences as a translator, especially in reference to Thuận’s atmospheric Chinatown. Using the novel as a focal ...
Afro-Brazilian Media and Antiracist Visual Politics (with Dr. Reighan Gillam)
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Reighan Gillam (University of Southern California) discusses how her fieldwork and research on media producers in Brazil shaped her first monograp...
Mapping As Revision of Life Stories (with Belinda Huijuan Tang)
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Belinda Huijuan Tang recollects how emotionally resonant family stories inspired her debut novel A Map for The Missing and connects the gaokao (the st...
Poetry, Migrancy, and Domestic Life (with Eileen Chong)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eileen Chong reflects on her eight poetry collections and the multiple worlds that arise out of relationships, language (translating, speaking, food, ...
(Dis-)Orientalism in the Academy (with Elaine Hsieh Chou)
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this interview about her electric debut novel Disorientations, Elaine Hsieh Chou discusses her inspiration for writing a fictional account of acade...
Mythologies as Communally Owned Stories (with K-Ming Chang)
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In both Bestiary and the upcoming story collection Gods of Want, K-Ming connects Victoria Chang’s practice of “language first, then ideas” with ...
“The Body as a Series of Questions” (with Susan Nguyen)
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In her debut poetry collection, Dear Diaspora, Susan Nguyen examines how the physical and social body is a site where language, diaspora, and the imag...
Anti-Colonial Practices as Research Methods (with Dr. Max Liboiron)
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Max Liboiron (Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John’s, NL) discusses their book Pollution is Colonialism, CLEAR, science and technology s...
Unreliable Narrators, Knowing and Unknowing (with Soon Wiley)
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Soon Wiley simultaneously deconstructs and critiques the mystery plot in his debut novel When We Fell Apart. In thinking about the two different persp...
Indigenous Internationalism, Indigenous Futures (with Dr. Nick Estes)
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Nick Estes (University of Minnesota) discusses the writing of his book, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline...
Reclamation Project: A Preview of Enjoy Me Among My Ruins (with Juniper Fitzgerald)
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Juniper Fitzgerald talks about her upcoming book, Enjoy Me Among My Ruins published by Feminist Press. Viewing her story as a reclamation project, she...
Countering the Borderlands for New Origin Stories (with Ariana Brown)
22 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ariana Brown discusses the genealogy of her debut full-length poetry collection, We Are Owed. Reflecting on her research on Texas history, what was ta...
Absences and Things Left Unsaid (with Jennifer Huang)
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Huang discusses their debut poetry collection, Return Flight, and how it is a sort of travelogue on diaspora as they reflect on the idea of h...
The Concept of a Person and Care Work in Undocumented Motherhood (with Dr. Elizabeth Farfán-Santos)
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Elizabeth Farfán-Santos previews her upcoming book, Undocumented Motherhood: Conversation on Love, Trauma, and Border Crossing, a creative text b...
Craft and Life Writing: On Work, the Model Minority Myth, and Covid (with Weike Wang)
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Centering Weike Wang’s essay, “Notes on Work” published in The New Yorker, we discuss how her views on work in Chemistry and Joan Is Okay inters...
Disaporic Languages of Migration, Food, Nature, and Colonial Histories (with Nina Mingya Powles)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Poet and author Nina Mingya Powles (Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai and Small Bodies of Water) shares how language learning and playing with ...
Thinking Across Texts, Thinking Across (Inter)disciplines (with Dr. Katherine McKittrick)
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Katherine McKittrick (Queen’s University) talks about interdisciplinarity, citations and footnotes, geographies, curiosity, and radical storytel...
Poetic Lab Notebooks and the Artistic Lives of Scientists (with Jenny Qi)
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jenny Qi reflects on the process of grief and how her scientific and artistic lives merged in her debut poetry collection Focal Point. Jenny, who wrot...
Fever Dreams: Subconscious, Poetic Experimentation (with Kelli Stevens Kane)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Poet, playwright, and oral historian Kelli Stevens Kane is the author of Hallelujah Science. Kane shares her process of writing and structuring her de...
Writing Intergenerational Trauma Through Food Memoir (with Grace M. Cho)
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Grace M. Cho (College of Staten Island, CUNY) discusses her hybrid text Tastes Like War: A Memoir (a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonficti...
Writing About Food: Somewhere Between “Theorizing and Imagining” (with Sun Yung Shin, V.V. Ganeshananthan, and Roy G. Guzmán)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I discuss the anthology What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family and its motivations with editor Sun Yung Shin and two ...
Empiricism, Collaborative Research, and Accountability (with Dr. Jelani Ince)
30 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Jelani Ince (University of Washington) shares thoughts on research and how he sees it as both a form of collaboration and a way to be held account...
Reflections on Racialized Organizations in Society (with Dr. Victor Ray)
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Victor Ray (University of Iowa) discusses his academic work and theory of racialized organizations, the connection between empirical sociology and...
Reclaiming Language, Reclaiming the Body (with Khalisa Rae)
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Poet and journalist Khalisa Rae discusses her beautiful debut poetry collection, Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat, which examines race and racism, tem...
Traveling Across Concepts, Countries, and Kitchens (with Ming-Cheau Lin)
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ming-Cheau Lin is the author of the cookbook Just Add Rice: Stories and Recipes By a Taiwanese South African and memoir Yellow and Confused: Born in T...
Beyond Carceral Imaginaries and Logics (with Dr. Tamara K. Nopper)
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Tamara K. Nopper, a sociologist, writer, editor, and data artist, discusses her scholarly work, public essays, and editing of Mariame Kaba's ...
Disordered Science (Studies) In Society (with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein)
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (University of New Hampshire) discusses her experience writing her book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matte...
Nuance as Antithetical to Binaries (with Deesha Philyaw)
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Deesha Philyaw, author of the story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, discusses the simplicity of binaries and proposes nuance as an alter...
Narratives of Empire and Inheritance (with Asako Serizawa)
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Asako Serizawa, author of The Inheritors, and I talk about her approach in writing and ordering her story collection which spans multiple centuries. I...
The Social World of the Book Review (with Dr. Phillipa Chong)
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times, author and sociologist Dr. Phillipa Chong (McMaster University) asks us to conside...
The Matter We Call Food (with Dr. Kyla Wazana Tompkins)
22 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Kyla Wazana Tompkins (Pomona College) and I discuss her monograph, Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century, and explore the ongoing ...
Book Reviews as Dialogue (with Dr. Rosemary Deller)
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Rosemary Deller, book review editor for London School of Economics Review of Books, and I talk about the analytical book review, its purposes, the...
Affect and Other Turns (with Dr. Ashley Barnwell)
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Ashley Barnwell (University of Melbourne) discusses her new book, Critical Affect: The Politics of Method, which I reviewed for the London School ...
Abundance and Revision (with Kiese Laymon)
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I talk methods, community, and the blurring of authorial and personal selves with Kiese Laymon, author (Heavy, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others ...