Who? Where?

“Tin House expands the boundaries of what great literature can do. Publisher of award-winning books of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; home to a renowned workshop and seminar series; and partner of a critically acclaimed podcast, Tin House champions writing that is artful, dynamic, and original. We are proud to publish and promote writers who speak to a wide range of experience, and lend context and nuance to their examination of our world.“(From Webpage)

Established in Portland, Oregon (western coast of the United States) and now distributed via Norton (NYC).

First encounter?
Their amazing magazine, which was like Granta and Brick combined, until it closed in 2018 and later ceased publishing online as well.

Other Tin House Reading:

The World Split Open by the Literary Arts Collective (2014)
Ruth Gilligan’s The Butchers’ Blessing (2020)
Eman Quotah’s Bride of the Sea (2021)
Elissa Washuta’s White Magic (2021)

Read Indies: Hosted by Karen and Lizzy

RECENT READ: Daisy Hernández’s The Kissing Bug (2021)

Nearly six million people are currently infected with the “kissing bug”, a parasite mostly undetected, with 20-30% of the infected individuals coping with cardiac problems and more than 10,000 people dying from it each year; the doctor who discovered it in 1909 was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice, but the WHO still classifies Chagas as a “neglected tropical disease.”

Daisy Hernández writes in clear-eyed and propulsive prose; she begins with a personal story that hooked me in two pages, moves to a broader understanding of the organism, and shifts finally to consideration of other families affected by the infection.

Her work recalls Harriet Washington’s writing on environmentalism racism (and, similarly, there’s extensive back-end material, for those who wish to investigate further, admire her scholarship). She is adept at drawing connections and exposing systemic injustices; she is equally adept at describing familial connections (she first met her aunt, who suffered and died from Chagas, when she was only eight months old) and describing ordinary, everyday scenes.

Deft asides (musings on language, Darwin’s encounters with the creatures, wrestling, mummies, unauthorized testing, built-in bookshelves, and make-shift clinics in church basements, for instance) fuel the quest-styled narrative.

Short chapters, further segmented yet again—combined with the story’s inherent urgency—make the narrative un-put-down-able.

“We do not consistently eradicate infectious diseases—we contain them to communities of color, to the poor, to the homeless, to people in this Second America.”