The Trouble With Humpadori

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Winner of an Editor’s Choice Price from The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective, THE TROUBLE WITH HUMPADORI introduces readers to what Srikanth Reddy calls "a Rabelaisian journey of epic (dis) porportions." Readers follows the progress of Hump (a.k.a. Humpadori, Hum, Om)—a racialized, monstrous, performing entity that morphs across genders and commodity forms. Structured as a set of slapstick theatrical acts borrowing from American comedy routines and minstrel traditions, the book moves from lyric intimacy to predatory rage, examining the "textures" of feeling available to marginalized bodies in a globalized world.

"Vidhu Aggarwal goes all ’boogie woogie’ with the politics of imperialism and racism, wedding abjection and postcolonialism, exuberance and shame...while giving us some of the most ’debased kerfuckle’ around."—Johannes Göransson

"Aggarwal plumps the ’Nub’ of Mackey’s Splay Anthem to a frothy mound of postcolonialism, dark wit, and gender crit... What a debut! Don’t get over the HUMP, get into it."—Douglas Kearney

"Vidhu Aggarwal poet of the pineal gland. She transmits-emits like a unicorn technology in the form of an author. Brilliant and wild, she writes. Then writes again."—Bhanu Kapil