Description
Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Winner of an Editor's Choice Prize from The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, THE TROUBLE WITH HUMPADORI introduces readers to what Srikanth Reddy calls "a Rabelaisian journey of epic (dis)porportions." Readers follows the progress of Hump (a.k.a. Humpadori, Hum, Om)—a racialized, monstrous, performing entity that morphs across genders and commodity forms. Structured as a set of slapstick theatrical acts borrowing from American comedy routines and minstrel traditions, the book moves from lyric intimacy to predatory rage, examining the "textures" of feeling available to marginalized bodies in a globalized world.
"Vidhu Aggarwal goes all 'boogie woogie' with the politics of imperialism and racism, wedding abjection and postcolonialism, exuberance and shame...while giving us some of the most 'debased kerfuckle' around."—Johannes Göransson
"Aggarwal plumps the 'Nub' of Mackey's Splay Anthem to a frothy mound of postcolonialism, dark wit, and gender crit... What a debut! Don't get over the HUMP, get into it."—Douglas Kearney
"Vidhu Aggarwal is a poet of the pineal gland. She transmits-emits like a unicorn technology in the form of an author. Brilliant and wild, she writes. Then writes again."—Bhanu Kapil
Author Bio
Born in Ranchi, India, Vidhu Aggarwal grew up in the Southern U.S., primarily in Louisiana and Texas. Her multi- media works in video, poetry, and scholarship are oriented around Bollywood spectacle, Mardi Gras, and science fiction. Her poems have appeared in Juked, [PANK], Sugar House Review, INK BRICK, and Norton's Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond, among others. A Kundiman fellow, she is the founding editor of SPECS, a multi-media journal with issues on "Homuncular Flexibility," "Toys," and "Faux Histories." She has worked with John Sims Projects on "The 13 Flag Funerals" in Florida, and with artist Bishakh Som on Lady Humpadori, a poetry/comic book collaboration. Her latest work, AVATARA, concerns the romance between a temporary Y2K tech worker and a unicorn A.I. She teaches postcolonial and cultural studies, and poetry and poetics at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.
Author City: ORLANDO, FL USA