2024 Winner of the Two Languages Book Award, Mina Khan’s debut collection Night Shift in Perfect English is a tender, album-like retelling of the immigrant family post-American Dream. Drawing upon her Korean-Pakistani heritage, Khan discusses the NYC bodega in a gentrifying neighborhood, the aging body, and a rapidly deteriorating climate; Everyday violences-and the vivid joys that persevere.

**We ask that all in-person attendees wear masks in the event space during the program for the health and well-being of the speakers and other guests. We will have a reception afterwards with light refreshments and copies of Night Shift in Perfect English available for purchase.**

Mina Khan is a Korean-Pakistani American poet from NYC. Her work spans across nations, generations, to discuss cyclicality, violence, tenderness, ecology, and the everyday. She is the author of MON-monuments, monarchs & monsters (Sputnik & Fizzle, 2020) and Night Shift in Perfect English (Gasher Press, 2026.) Her work has appeared in AAWW’s The Margins, Tupelo Quarterly, Epiphany Magazine, and more. Khan holds a BA from Wesleyan University, MFA from Columbia University, and is a Tin House alum.

Jesse Fairbanks (they/them) is a nonfiction writer from East Tennessee whose work reflects the conditions and consequences of racial capitalism. Through stories of their dead mothers, Jesse honors the concept of complex personhood, celebrating their matriarchs' stubbornness while mourning their passivity. Their essays weave political and familial histories to expose white supremacy as soul-sucking for white southerners with little income and no wealth. Jesse currently works as a Policy Analyst on the Public Benefits Justice team at the Center for Law and Social Policy, where they advocate to increase funding for and expand access to federal rental assistance programs

Francesca Kritikos is the editor in chief of SARKA, a journal and publisher focused on works of the flesh. Her latest book, The season of lilacs is monstrous, was released by Blush Lit in October 2025. Her writing has been published in English, French and Greek in numerous online and print journals. She also writes the Substack column Body Composition.

Natasha Mijares is an artist, writer, curator, and educator. She received her MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at various international and national galleries. Her work has appeared in Gravity of the Thing, Hypertext Review, Calamity, Vinyl Poetry, and more.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and the Chicago Poetry Center. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.