Akil Kumarasamy’s debut novel,Meet Us by the Roaring Sea, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2022. It was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize and Lambda Literary Award. Her linked short story collection,Half Gods, (FSG, 2018), was awarded the Bard Fiction Prize and the Story Prize Spotlight Award. Her work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic and American Short Fiction, among others.

She is an assistant professor in the Rutgers University-Newark MFA program and a 2024 25 fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Kumarasamy’s reading is presented as part of the Seavey Reading Series, which provides students with unparalleled access to acclaimed authors through readings and classroom activities.