Kirsten Imani Kasai

Dr. Kirsten Imani Kasai is the author of three novels. Her Afro-Gothic novel The House of Erzulie (Shade Mountain Press, 2018) was described by Booklist as “a propulsive read, full of commentary on ethnic identity, mental illness, and power.” Her speculative fiction novel Ice Song (Del Rey, 2009) won the 2010 San Diego Book Award, and its sequel, Tattoo (Del Rey, 2011) earned comparisons to the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, Tanith Lee, and Angela Carter.

Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in the Baltimore Review, Transition, Arts & Letters, Bucovina Literara, Existere Journal of Arts & Literature, San Diego Reader, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, From Foul to Fearful: Essays on Body Horror, and The Body Horror Book among others.

Dr. Kasai’s fiction and scholarship examine the intersections of identity, race, gender, power, the supernatural, and the grotesque in contemporary literature. Teaching and research interests include hybrid and experimental storytelling forms, speculative fiction, critical fabulation and reparative narratives, feminist utopias, and representations of mixed (biracial) people in contemporary American literature.