Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays: A Conversation with Amie Souza Reilly

May 04, 2025

Critical Matter: Reviews and Thoughts

Reviews, mini-essays, and other musings.

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October 22, 2026

The Embodied Language of “Carrying”

October 22, 2026

In Samantha Josephs’ novel, Carrying, “carrying” moves beyond mere suggestions and symbols. On a linguistic level, “carrying” becomes embodied language. It is an entanglement of words and the meaning of those words on the physical body and its experience. Martha, the main character of Carrying, is a trans woman with a husband and stepdaughter who don’t know she is trans. In the opening scene of the novel, Martha is at the butcher’s shop placing a particular order: “Could I also get a quarter pound of beef liver? […] And do you have pig’s blood?” When the butcher asks if she is making blood sausage, she smiles and says it’s for an old family recipe. These are the props she needs to sell her performance of staging a miscarriage: “The beef liver is perfect, a small amorphous shape about the size of her big toe.” Her only misgivings about this theatricality are that she had to ruin a beloved dress and burn the chicken she was making for dinner.

October 22, 2026

Translating Obsession

October 22, 2026

What is it to be obsessed? In clinical terms, an obsession is marked by “recurrent, persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are involuntary, intrusive and unwanted.” Obsessions can cause significant distress and anxiety. Even when an individual recognizes these obsessive thoughts as unreasonable, they often feel unable to control them. But the clinical definition has lost some of its power or gravitas. In our contemporary lingo, obsession is used as hyperbole to describe an interest, however passionate, in something, someone, a trend, an object. Obsession gets stripped of its darker context. And instead, we’re obsessed with our new shoes; we’re obsessed with a new show or movie; and we’re obsessed with other people: celebrities, friends, even strangers.

October 22, 2026

So Is Your Face

October 22, 2026

The idea of the face, what it represents on a personal and societal level, is one that feels often overlooked, or taken for granted. Faces, after all, are ubiquitous. We all have them, we all study our own—probably too much. But how often do we think about the notion of “facehood,” a term coined by Fay Bound-Alberti in her book The Face: A Cultural History. The Face is a well-researched, yet conversational, interrogation of how the idea and understanding of the face has evolved over time. The book runs through the historical evolution of the face, how new technology expands and transforms the face’s meaning, how discredited ideas like eugenics use the face to judge morality and establish social status, race and gender, and how these ideas are still active in our society today.

October 22, 2026

April 3, 2026

The Importance of Representation in “We Are Green and Trembling”

April 3, 2026

Representation matters. How we see ourselves reflected in media—especially in so-called highbrow cultural forms—shapes our understanding of the world we inhabit, the communities we belong to, and the symbols we use to construct meaning.

April 3, 2026

The Art of Turning Away in Daniel Poppick’s The Copywriter

April 3, 2026

We have to assume that as artists and writers, we all face moments—likely many—where we ask ourselves: What’s the point? Most of us will never grow wealthy from our craft. As for those who do, we often find ourselves questioning their artistic sincerity. Have they simply mastered the art of reducing their soul to a manageable, marketable asset, distorting their identity for the sake of self-promotion?

April 3, 2026

May 4, 2025

Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays: A Conversation with Amie Souza Reilly

May 4, 2025

February 28, 2025

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here

February 28, 2025

February 24, 2025

Grand Theft Hamlet

February 24, 2025

My relationship with Grand Theft Auto is virtually nil. I have never played any version of the popular video game—this is not a badge of honor I am pinning to my chest; the video game bug, like the comic book bug was one that never bit me. My closest relationship to it is the essay “Grand Theft” by Tom Bissell in which he discusses a three-year addiction to video games and cocaine (the video game of prominence was the Grand Theft Auto series). Just because I have no interest in playing video games like GTA, doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what can be done with them—or how they can be examined and analyzed through the lens of storytelling, socioeconomics, feminism…or any other critical lens. So, when a film like Grand Theft Hamlet shows up, I’m willing, despite my lack of familiarity, to see where it takes me.

February 24, 2025