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Chrystel Oloukoï is an artist, film critic, and curator focusing on experimental cinema, queer cinema, and Black continental and diasporic cinema. They hold a PhD from Harvard University and work at the University of Washington. Their writing has appeared in...

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Jesse Thorn is a podcaster, comedian, and culture critic in Los Angeles. He is the host of the NPR arts and culture program Bullseye and cohost of the comedy shows Jordan, Jesse, Go! and Judge John Hodgman. In 2024, he...

Kushanava Choudhury is the author of The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta (Bloomsbury, 2018). His upcoming book on Kerala will be published in 2026.

Rebecca Gilman is a playwright whose work includes Swing State, Luna Gale, Boy Gets Girl, and Spinning Into Butter. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her play The...

Kaveh Akbar’s poems have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. He has published two poetry collections—Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf—and is the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on...

Roger Durling has been the executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for twenty-three years. He has been teaching film studies at Santa Barbara City College for just as long. He helped edit a book on Alfonso Cuarón’s...