LOVECRAFT COUNTRY FINALE

When Matt Ruff gave his blessing to Producer/Screenwriter Misha Green, he told her, "It's yours now. Go for it.". Not only did she go for it, she hit a home run! On today's episode of FORKS X FANGS we bring in special returning guest, Jonathan "Fro" Perry, as we wrap up our series finale of Tiny Bites discussing episode 9 & 10 of HBO's Lovecraft Country.

SABRINA & CORINA

Kali Fajardo-Anstine's carefully and wonderfully crafted work is one of our generations most important works to read.  Her novel 𝑺𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 & 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 deals with the struggles of love and death, and how both of those factors forever shaped the lives of the characters in her stories. Based in Denver, Colorado we follow the people in 11 linked short stories that focus on the lives of Indigenous and Latinx women. On this episode of FORKS X FANGS we discuss our favorite works and the importance of reading about the lives of the forgotten ones. 

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We're back with another installment of Tiny Bites featuring HBO's 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚! Hippolyta gets sucked into a portal triggered by a time machine, and Dee is chased down by demon twins after being cursed by two white police officers.

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

First thing first! Black women y'all did that! Congratulations to Kamala Harris, the 46th Vice President of the United States of America!!!

On this episode of FORKS X FANGS we discuss Veronica's birthday pick, 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝑬𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝑾𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒐𝒅 by Zora Neale Hurston. We dive deep into the life of Zora and Janie, as well as Veronica's obsession with both of those women, tattoos, and Florida History. 

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More answers are met with more questions for HBO's 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚. This week on this special edition of Tiny Bites, it seems as Franz Kafka himself must have really like this show and wanted to pay tribute to Misha Green. We discover that Ruby wakes up in the body of a white woman,  Montrose seeks solace in the arms of an secret lover, and Atticus falls in love with a nine-tailed magical creature who may or may not be trying to kill him. 

SUCH A FUN AGE

The debut novel from writer Kiley Reid has proven to find a special place among the newest contemporaries. 𝑺𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝑨 𝑭𝒖𝒏 𝑨𝒈𝒆 drops us dead center into an explosion of drama. Despite being the babysitter, 26 year-old Emira, a Black woman, is wrongly accused of kidnapping a 3 year-old white child in a grocery store. Emira is thrown into a whirlwind of lies, white privilege, and videotape. Reid's attention to laying each character's secrets in plain sight is truly magical. This satirical novel presents us with a timely tale of a racism and a life lesson on how to stay out grown folks business.

FRONT DESK

The Vulgar Geniuses duo take a backseat during this episode of FORKS X FANGS. We are joined by resident kid correspondent, Olivia Wang, as she reviews the novel 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒌 by Kelly Yang. Semi-based on the life of the author, readers learn about Mia Tang who has moved from China with her parents to make a new life in America.  To make ends meet, her parents take a job at the Calivista Motel. Unable to clean the rooms and run the front desk, Mia decides to help out her parents by running the front desk for them.  Did we mention that Mia is only 10 years old?! This novel grapples with  themes such as racism and immigration, making this story a teaching lesson for adults as well.  

MICHELLE FLORES

In her chapbook 𝑪𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒔 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒘𝒂𝒎𝒑,  Michelle Flores gives us glimpses into her life as a granddaughter, being a caregiver to a dying parent, and the Cuban lineage that runs deep in her veins. We also learn of a hilarious family secret and the family ties to her children's book 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒕.  

CINELLE BARNES

Filipina author, Cinelle Barnes, sits down with us to talk about her memoir 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏. Cinelle's book documents her childhood in the Philippines as she was thrust from a life of luxury into that of extreme poverty due to the Gulf War. We also discuss the new book that features her as the editor, 𝑨 𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈: 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉, that chronicles Southern life through the scope of race, gender, sexuality, and more. 

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We are back with another special edition of Tiny Bites as we recap episodes 3 & 4 of HBO's 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚. Leti buys a house haunted by a racist evil mad scientist. Atticus then teams up with his father to search for the missing pages of Titus Braithwaite which could unlock the greatest magic ever seen.

THE HOLE

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒆 by Hye-Young Pyun gives us Misery mixed with Diary of a Mad Black Woman realness. Oghi wakes up from a coma to find that his wife has died and his entire body is paralyzed after a horrible car accident. Only able to communicate through "yes" or "no" blinks, Oghi is now under the care of his grieving mother-in-law. All hell soon breaks loose once Oghi makes it home from the hospital as his mother-in-law decides to upend the backyard garden and his life.

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Sundown towns and magical racists wizards are just a touch of what you will see in Misha Green's television rendition of Matt Ruff's novel 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚. Set in the 1950's, we meet Atticus (Jonathan Majors) a veteran solider on his way to Chicago to find his father who has gone missing while on a hunt to find out his dead wife's family legacy. He goes on a road trip with his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) only to find themselves battling huge naked mole multi-eyed vampiric monsters and well...Jim Crow level racism. 

A GOOD FAMILY

AH Kim's novel 𝑨 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑭𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 speaks to the old age adage that "blood is thicker than water" no matter how many times siblings will stab each other in the back to prove it. This novel was full of sex, drugs and lies but missed the most important thing, a plot!

THE CLAUDIA KISHI CLUB

We bring back one of our favorite segments called Tiny Bites where we talk about literature found in television and film. This week we review Netflix's newest addition, The Claudia Kishi Club. This documentary, directed by Sue Ding, explores the most popular character in The Babysitter's Club series, Claudia Kishi. Ding sits down with some of the country's most influential Asian writers, artists and media executives to discuss the impact the fictional 13 year-old Japanese-American girl had in their lives.

THE NICKEL BOYS

Colson Whitehead forces us to look through his magnifying glass disguised as his Pulitzer Prize winning novel 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒍 𝑩𝒐𝒚𝒔. His book demands us to wrestle with America's past, present, and our place in the future. Set in the 1960s, Jim Crow serves as the backdrop to trauma, police brutality, and an unjust system through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Elwood Curtis. Ripped-from-the-headlines, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒍 𝑩𝒐𝒚𝒔 serves as a memorial to the children who endured barbaric treatment at the Dozier School for Boys for 111 years. 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: SJ SINDU

On this very special episode of FORKS X FANGS we interview SJ Sindu, author of the novel 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑳𝒊𝒆𝒔. We talk with her about everything under the sun from her novel and upcoming works, celebrating Pride Month, and her favorite Sri Lankan dish that instantly transports her home.

BROWN & BLACK SERIES: JONATHAN “FRO” PERRY

8 minutes and 46 seconds. That is how long Officer Derek Chauvin held his knee to George Floyd's neck.  No one could have imagined the level of outrage that sparked a revolution when George Floyd, a man from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was murdered by police during Memorial Day Weekend. As the world took to the streets in a united front for a call for justice, others found themselves protesting in other ways. We speak to Jonathan "Fro" Perry, a graffiti artist based in Bremerton, Washington who paid tribute to George Floyd and many others that died at the hands of police.  He speaks on why he painted the mural, his experiences with the police, and what it is to be a biracial man in America.

I AM NOT NEGRO

In 2016 filmmaker Raol Peck released the Oscar nominated documentary 𝑰 𝑨𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑵𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒐 about James Baldwin, a black gay writer and activist who explored the topics of race, sexuality, and class during the Civil Rights Movement. Peck's film reveals to the world the unfinished manuscript from Baldwin called 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 in which he writes about his friends and civil rights activists, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. and their assassinations. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of Baldwin, this film serves as an alarm as we find our country fighting the same battles for freedom and justice today. 

GODS OF JADE & SHADOW

Grab a seat and a shot of the finest quarantine tequila you can find. The Vulgar Geniuses get nice and tipsy as they discuss the novel 𝑮𝒐𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒂𝒅𝒆 & 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒘 by Silvia Morena-Garcia. The God of Death is awaken when an 18 year old girl opens a box where his bones have been locked away for years. Now these two must journey through Mexico to find his missing body parts to regain his godly form before he dies and his evil twin brother becomes the god of the underworld.

BROWN & BLACK SERIES: ASIAN IN LIT

On this episode of Forks X Fangs, we introduce a new segment called Brown & Black where we tackle issues regarding marginalized groups in literature.  Today I get to interview my partner in crime, Dennie Wang. In honor of Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, we take a look at the importance of Asians seeing theirselves represented in literature.  

TINY BITES: GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

On this special edition episode of FORKS X FANGS we discuss the film 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒔. This film stars Sennia Nenua as Melanie, a gifted half human/half zombie child that sets on a journey to save humanity from apocalyptic destruction. The screenplay was written by M.R. Carey who also wrote the novel of the same name as the film.