Speakers on Cultural Criticism
Pragya Agarwal
knows the personal is always political.
Kaveh Akbar
is relentlessly pursuing the truth.
Ayad Akhtar
tells many stories in many ways.
Hilton Als
illuminates culture.
Hala Alyan
is seeding a new narrative.
Tareq Baconi
is decoding power, politics, and resistance.
Rich Benjamin
holds up a mirror.
Gemma Cairney
is the force of generations.
Mona Chalabi
is taking the numb out of numbers.
Jessamine Chan
scrutinizes societal expectations.
Grace M. Cho
is exploring intergenerational trauma through the connective potential of food.
Andrei Codrescu
is an OG.
Sloane Crosley
is a cultural critic with a punch(line).
Geoff Dyer
is led by curiosity.
Isaac Fitzgerald
is who we want to be when we grow up.
Ben Fountain
is a pretty good attorney but a great writer.
Roxane Gay
is feminist AF.
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah
is a brilliant tour guide to the most fascinating places.
Michelle Goldberg
calls it like it is.
Mira Jacob
has the hard conversations.
Ashley M. Jones
is a poet for the people.
Saeed Jones
is one man made up of many parts.
Jamal Jordan
is viewing things through a new lens.
Brian Klaas
keeps tabs on authoritarianism. He’s pretty busy most days.
Rachel Kushner
writes like your favorite mixtape plays.
Lyz Lenz
will get you fired up.
Daniel Levitin
knows why music makes you happy.
Jacki Lyden
is a good person to have with you in a war zone.
Paul Lynch
gets to the heart of the matter.
Carmen Maria Machado
thinks misogyny is boring as hell (and genre, too).
Sarah Thankam Mathews
builds community on and off the page.
Natalia Molina
makes sense of community.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
calls us to re-examine our own history.
Morgan Parker
is a poetic provocateur.
Ann Patchett
is a champion of literary culture.
Jon Ronson
is brill!
Sandy Rustin
views the world as her stage.
Carina del Valle Schorske
translates beautifully.
Jennifer Senior
knows how you feel.
Namwali Serpell
faces the world.
Sarah Smarsh
knows which way the wind is blowing.
Virginia Sole-Smith
feeds our minds, bodies, and souls.
Andrew Solomon
writes important books about the most important things.
Jason Stanley
knows that words matter and why.
Amber Tamblyn
fights like a girl.
Christina Vo
unveils worlds.
Jemimah Wei
knows how to make words linger.
Jenna Wortham
is a cultural conduit.
