Book Reading/Book Signing, Q&A with Author Amie Souza Reilly

Amie Souza Reilly bought an old house in the suburbs. She had just gotten remarried and was looking forward to a new start with her new husband and her six-year-old son. But immediately after moving in, the next-door neighbors began a crusade to push them out. The two brothers followed her, peered in her windows, stood in her yard, trapped her inside her car. As they broke boundary after suburban boundary, she found herself implicated in their violence. Human/Animal merges personal narrative and cultural criticism to unleash the complicated relationship

between instinct and action, violence and regret.

This bestiary-in-essays wrestles American colonialism, horror films, feminism, and gender studies to confront the intrusive neighbors the author could not. Ultimately, this book asks larger questions about proximity, care, and the line between human and animal. Illustrated with the author's own sketches, Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays grapples not only with Reilly's place in her neighborhood, but with America's past and current politica climate.

Amie Souza Reilly is a visual artist and multi-genre writer from Connecticut. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Orion, Ms. Magazine, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She holds an MA in English Literature from Fordham University and an MA from Fairfield University. She is the Writer-in-Residence and Director of Writing Studies at Sacred Heart University.