An interview with Gina Nutt, author of Night Rooms (2021), a linked collection of essays that use the horror movie genre as a catalyst to cultural understanding. Gina and I discuss the “final girl” trope in horror and the need for a #metoo moment for the genre, the terrible, beautiful humanity of Swedish horror films, and the process of coming to terms with our proximity to death and the swirling void that is always following in our wake.

Books Recommended in this episode:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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In a live show, sponsored by Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, NY, Lauren and I discuss the opiating allure of social media, the impossibility of authenticity, and our desire for books without cellphones.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Lauren Oyler recommends:

Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with debut novelist, Ellie Eaton, author of The Divines (2021). Ellie and I talk about class and race at English public schools, the genre of the campus novel, and the power and cruelty of teenagers.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Ellie Eaton Recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with celebrated Belarusian American poet, Valzhyna Mort. The publication of one of the collections poems, “Antigone, A Dispatch” in the New Yorker, brought attention to the anti-democratic tyranny in Belarus, where the most recent fair election was squashed by the Putin-puppet, Alexander Lukashenko. Music for the Dead and Resurrected (2020) is a testament to the voices and lives of her friends, family, and compatriots (especially her fellow artists) who have been brutalized in this anti-democratic power grab.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Valzhyna Mort recommends:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Alia Trabucco Zerán, author of Remainder (2019), and Carl Fischer, author of Queering the Chilean Way (2016). Alia and I discuss the vote in Chile for a constitutional convention, her struggle with long haul Covid, and the inherited trauma of fascism. Also, I welcome Professor of Latin American Literature at Fordham University, Carl Fischer.

Books Recommended in this episode:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Edan Lepucki, author of California (2014), Woman No. 17 (2017). Edan and I talk about being on the bleeding edge of the violent girl novel, being promoted by Stephen Colbert, the great California novel, and returning to one’s own “failed” novels.

Books Recommended in this episode:

• Carolyn See, Golden Days



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here (2020). Kevin shares his recommendations for summer reading, including his votes for the best ever short novels, the line that he repeats every day, and the book that made him less afraid of what comes after death.

Books Recommended in this episode:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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Interviews with Bob Proehl, author of A Hundred Thousand Worlds and The Nobody People, and Miller Susen, author, director, and Educational Director at LiveArts, Charlottesville VA.

Books Recommended in this episode:



Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Alexandra Chang about her debut novel, Days of Distraction (2020). I introduce some distraction reads, some for when you want to wallow in the anxiety, and others for pure escapism.

Books Recommended in this episode:

Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

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An interview with Lisa Swayze, the General Manager of Buffalo Street Book in Ithaca, New York. Buffalo Street Books is one of a handful of community-owned bookstores in the country. It survived the double plague of a Borders and a Barnes and Nobles in the same tiny city with them by reaching out to the community to buy ownership shares. We discuss her latest recommendations for reading during the pandemic, and I share my delight with the sub-genre of the “paranoid campus novel.”

Books Recommended in this episode:

Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro as World Literature, is under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices