Ep. 129 The Myth of Strength with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio is the author of The Stacks Book Club selection for September, The Undocumented Americans. On today's episode we get a deeper (and spoiler free) look at the book, and why Karla felt compelled to tell these stories now. We also discuss the audience Karla had in mind while writing, her ideal writing set up, and why describing women of color as "strong" is a form of erasure.
The Stacks Book Club selection for September is The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. We will discuss the book with Lupita Aquino on September 30th.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Amadou Diallo (The New York Times)
"Lana Del Rey and Alison Roman flaunted white women’s privilege. But they’re not alone" (Lorraine Ali, The Los Angeles Times)
"This Is the Face of an Undocumented Immigrant. Don’t Look Away." (Caitlin Dickerson, The New York Times)
"What we're reading this summer" (The New Yorker)
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
"The American Dirt Controversy Is Painfully Intramural" (Randy Boyagoda, The Atlantic)
The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001)
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The White Album by Joan Didion
A Small Place by Jamaica Kingcaid
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Inferno by Eileen Myles
Homecoming (Beyonce, 2019)
"I'm Real" Jennifer Lopez Ft. Ja Rule
Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
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Connect with Karla: Instagram
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