From Oct. 14-Oct. 21, Southeastern’s English department hosted its Common Read series on the novel “What we Fed to the Manticore” by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, who headlined the final event.  

Common Reads are selected titles students in English classes will read for their courses throughout the academic year. During the fall semester or spring semester, the author of the common read will visit campus to speak to students about their work. 

Leading up to Kolluri’s visit to campus, English department faculty hosted daily lectures about her collection of short stories, “What We Fed to the Manticore.”

Her book is divided into nine chapters, each focusing on an animal. The stories explore topics such as environmentalism, loss, belonging and identity through the animals’ points of view. 

On Monday, Oct. 21, Kolluri hosted three events on campus: a Q&A session, a reading from her novel and a lecture. During the Q&A session, Kolluri answered questions from attendees that ranged from thematic discussions about her book to advice about writing. 

One student asked why she wrote a collection of short stories instead of a novel and Kolluri offered an explanation for her choice. 

“I wanted to make sure I could cover many different parts of the globe. I didn’t want to be constrained by a plot that would carry through, and I wanted to be able to have that freedom to branch out a little bit,” Kolluri said.

She also gave encouraging words to aspiring artists in attendance.

“Part of being an artist is having the courage to say something that is important to you,” she advised.

Kolluri explained the backstory behind the cover of her novel, which an attendee adored and wanted to learn more about. She shared she wanted a tiger to be on the cover and felt the design embodied the different environments within her novel.

The cover is a vibrant mix of bright blues, reds, mint greens and gold. Its central image is a blue tiger.

Kolluri shared what she hopes attendees will take away from her book.

“I hope they come away with curiosity. I hope they are inspired to engage with the natural world around them and are more curious about it,” Kolluri said. “I hope they find some kind of plant or animal or sea creature they love and that they can champion. The natural world definitely needs our support.” 

After the Q&A session, Kolluri read from three short stories in her novel: “The Good Donkey,” “The Dog Star is the Brightest Star in the Sky” and “Let your Body Meet the Ground.” 

During the reading, she shared “The Dog Star is the Brightest Star in the Sky” is her way of expressing how animals who don’t often interact with humans, such as polar bears, are still affected by our impact on the Earth.

The last story in the collection, “Let your Body Meet the Ground” is about pigeons and is Kolluri’s way of expressing her interest in how they navigate the world.

Kolluri’s final event was a lecture in the Sims Memorial Library iHub. The lecture focused on her methodologies for writing the novel. She said to accurately depict a whale’s sensory experience in her story “The Open Ocean is an Endless Desert,” she ran experiments in her swimming pool replicating sound underwater. 

Her writing process relied heavily on scholarship in physiology to accurately represent the emotional and physical experiences of animals in her novel.

Kolluri expressed gratitude regarding the warm reception she received from Southeastern.

“This whole day has been really special to me. I have never received such good questions and I appreciate how deeply students here engage with my work,” Kolluri said.