Today professor and author Anthony Christian Ocampo returns to unpack the memoir Fairest by Meredith Talusan. The book is about Talusan’s childhood in the Philippines, immigration to the US, experiences at Harvard, and eventual transition. Traci and Anthony discuss the subjective nature of beauty, and what it means to have an author reckon with their past in a memoir. They differ considerably on their opinions of the book, and lean into a conversation about critique, representation, and responsibility.
Be sure to listen all the way to end of the episode to find out what our November book club pick will be!
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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.
- Fairest by Meredith Talusan
- Brown and Gay in LA by Anthony Christian Ocampo
- Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
- Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
- The Stacks Pack
- Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA)
- Rorschach Test
- My Family’s Slave (Alex Tizon, The Atlantic)
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- New York University (New York, NY)
- Columbia University (New York, NY)
- A Chosen Exile by Allyson Hobbs
- Redford White
- “It’s Been Two Days… feat. Traci Thomas of The Stacks Podcast” (2 Black Girls, 1 Rose: A Bachelor Podcast)
- Kima Jones
- Dunkaroos
- bell hooks
- Prison by Any Other Name by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
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