Writing professors Dorothea Lasky and Victor LaValle discuss recent work — Lasky’s book of poetry, The Shining, and the Apple TV+ adaptation of LaValle’s novel, The Changeling — with Jack Halberstam, English and Comparative Literature. 

About The Shining
“As labyrinthine as its namesake, Dorothea Lasky’s The Shining is an ekphrastic horror lyric that shapes an entirely unique feminist psychological landscape. Here, Lasky guides us through the familiar rooms of the Overlook Hotel, both realized and imagined, inhabiting characters and spaces that have been somewhat flattened in Stephen King’s text or Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptations. Ultimately, Lasky’s poems point us to the ways in which language is always haunted — by past selves, poetic ancestors, and paradoxical histories.”

About The Changeling
“When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and strange recurring dreams. Now Apollo is a father himself — and as he and his wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. At first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes. Thus begins Apollo’s quest to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His odyssey takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.” The gripping new series The Changeling will make its global debut with the first three episodes on Friday, September 8, 2023 on Apple TV+, with new episodes every Friday.