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Bhanu Kapil is the author of
The Vertical Interrogation

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of Strangers from
Kelsey Street Press,

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and Incubation: A Space for
Monsters from Leon Works.

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A forthcoming collection
entitled Humanimal:

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A Project for Future Children,
will be published this fall,

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also by Kelsey Street Press.

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Her work has appeared
in numerous journals,

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including Chain, Conjunctions ,
Denver Quarterly and Salt Hill.

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She currently teaches
at Naropa University,

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and in the low-residency MFA
in Writing at Goddard College.

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Bhanu's work has been
described by critics

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as stunning, physically
and linguistically brave,

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and continuously shifting.

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She states, "I've
been thinking of books

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as membranes for the beings
or figures that inhabit them."

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Bear with me as I
make an analogy.

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Calling back our high
school science education,

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we hopefully remember that
membranes witness continuous

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shifting via the
process of osmosis,

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where solvents pass
in and out, creating

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energy and equilibrium.

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Osmotic pressure is
the pressure required

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to maintain this equilibrium.

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What catches me most about
Kapil's collection, Incubation,

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is the way in which
identity becomes

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likened to this pressure.

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The force that is suspended and
dependent on the concentration

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of language which
enters the speaker's

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metaphorical membranes,
and the lack of words

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to describe the feat
Bhanu has performed,

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which is why I am
resorting to science.

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I think Bhanu says it best in
Notes Against a Cyborg preface.

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I heard these words
inside my own body.

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Please join me in
welcoming Bhanu Kapil.

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[APPLAUSE]

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