ALISON KINNEY is assistant professor of writing (nonfiction) at Eugene Lang College, The New School. She is the author of the books Hood and Avidly Reads Opera. Her writing on culture, history, science, and social justice has appeared in many publications, online or in print, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, Lapham's Quarterly, The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper's, and Gay Magazine. She lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York.