Downing's novel traces the layered inheritance of Black and Cherokee identity through the fictional life of a young girl, Ophelia Blue Rivers. The story is set in the historical town of Etsi, which confronts what the author calls America’s “two original sins” — Black enslavement and Indigenous genocide — and invites readers to reflect on what happens when those histories meet in one body. For me, I was particularly drawn to how the novel processes historical and inter-generational wounds, and what literature means in this context for collective healing.

Recommended Reading:

Black Cherokee

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Dog—the U.S. debut of Israeli writer Yishay Ishi Ron—delivers an honest and unflinching portrait of a veteran battling trauma and addiction.

The story follows Geller, a former Israeli commando officer whose life unravels the aftermath of war. Now adrift in Tel Aviv, he struggles with PTSD, addiction, and the disorienting pull of memory. On the margins of society, Geller forges tentative connections—with Doris, a woman whose loyalty offers both comfort and challenge, and with a stray dog who becomes his unlikely companion but emotional anchor.

Written originally in Hebrew and long-listed for the Sapir Prize, one of Israel’s most prestigious literary awards, the novel now reaches English-speaking readers in a translation that preserves both its intensity and lyricism.

Ishi, is not only the author but also a survivor of PTSD, having served in an elite IDF combat unit. His writing channels lived experience into fiction, and it shows how storytelling can give shape to pain, reshape it, and transcend beyond it. Joining him is Yardenne Greenspan, a Tel Aviv–born writer and translator. Yardenne is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction and literary translation, and definitely has brought some of the most urgent voices in Hebrew literature into English.

Recommended Reading:

DOG

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What truly makes Anna Karenina so significant—as an epitome of world literature—is that it is far more than a tale of love and tragedy. Tolstoy offers us a mirror of the common human condition and suffering—his characters are as alive today, with all their emotional turmoil, just as they were in the 19th century. Today, we’re truly honored to welcome back Professor. Julia Titus from Yale University, to guide us into Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece Anna Karenina. Prof. Titus is the author of Dostoevsky as a Translator of Balzac (2022).

Recommended Reading:

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1878)

Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)

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Can murder ever be justified for the greater good? Today, we will walk through the twisted streets of St. Petersburg, depicted by the brilliant yet tormented mind of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment is more than a novel—it's a psychological odyssey into the depths of guilt, redemption, and the human soul. Joining us is Dr. Julia Titus from Yale University, she is the author of Dostoevsky as a Translator of Balzac (2022). Dr. Titus will help us unravel the moral complexities and existential questions that continue to fascinate us over a century later.

Recommended Reading: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)

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In Search of Lost Time (1913) by Marcel Proust remains one of the most profound and monumental novels of the 20th century, presenting us an intricate labyrinth of memory, time, and desire. With us are Professor Darci Gardner from Appalachian State University, whose expertise is in 19th and 20th-century French literature and she will shed light on the enigmatic Proustian syntax as a vehicle for story-telling and more. We also have Professor François Proulx from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and his expertise in French literature will enlighten us on aspects of desire and sexuality in this novel.

Suggested Readings:

Marcel Proust, Swann's Way (vol.1 of In Search of Lost Time)

Proust and the Arts (2018) ed.Christie McDonald & François Proulx

D. Gardner, "Rereading as a Mechanism of Defamiliarization in Proust," Poetics Today (2016) 37 (1): 55–105.https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-3452619

F. Proulx, “Beyond the Epistemology of the Closet.” Nineteenth-Century French Studies 48:3-4 (2020), 185-192.https://muse.jhu.edu/article/754608

F. Proulx, “Proust’s Drawings and the Secret of the ‘Solitary House.’” Modern Language Notes 133:4 (2018), 865-890.https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/707619

F. Proulx and H. Freed-Thall, eds. “Proust to Other Ends,” special issue of L’Esprit Créateur, 62:3 (Fall 2022), 164 pages.https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/48666

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Music by Giorgio Di Campo from FreeSound Music:
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original video: (https://youtu.be/_vZT5AHSuPk?si=KMvmbbfOpqAaWeWK)

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W.H. Auden is the modernist poet who coined the term “the age of anxiety” and is noted for his stylistic and technical achievement. His work intellectually engaged with politics, morals, love and religion. With us today is our distinguished guest, Professor Nicholas Jenkins. Prof. Jenkins teaches English literature at Stanford University and will soon be the director of the Stanford Creative Writing Program. He is also the literary executor of the ballet impresario Lincoln Kirstein, the creator of the Kindred Britain website, and the author of the critically acclaimed book The Island: War and Belonging in Auden's England, published by Harvard University Press.

Recommended Reading:
Selected Poems of W. H. Auden(1991)
The Island: War and Belonging in Auden's England (2024)

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Music by Giorgio Di Campo from FreeSound Music:
http://freesoundmusic.eu
/ freemusicforyoutube
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original video: (https://youtu.be/_vZT5AHSuPk?si=KMvmbbfOpqAaWeWK)

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Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1861) stands as a cornerstone of English literature, encapsulating Dickens' unparalleled talent to weave intricate plots with vivid characters against the backdrop of Victorian society. Our guest-speaker today is Prof. Joshua Gooch from D'Youville College in New York. Dr. Gooch's expertise is the intersections of work, power, and aesthetics in literature and film. He is the author of Dickensian Affects: Charles Dickens and Feelings of Precarity.

Recommended Readings:

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

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