Photo by Chloe Yablonski
By Stella Feenstra, Digital Social Media & Advertising Editor
On Nov. 18, Susquehanna University welcomed award-winning author Akil Kumarasamy for the third installment of the 2025-2026 Seavey Reading Series.
Kumarasamy is the author of several award-winning works, such as her short story collection, Half Gods, and her debut novel, Meet Us by the Roaring Sea. She also works as an assistant professor in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.
The event opened with a short reading presented by Catherine Dent, director of the Writer’s Institute. Dent also extended a thank you to all collaborators of the Seavey Reading Series for making the event possible.
Dent then welcomed student Grace Evans to the stage. Evans is a senior creative writing major with a religious studies minor. She expressed her excitement when first opening Meet Us by the Roaring Sea, including how the novel captured the “mundane loneliness” of a “mild dystopia”.
According to Evans, the novel pushes readers to understand consciousness and compassion more deeply. After praising the author of the novel immensely, Evans welcomed Kumarasamy to the stage.
Kumarasamy opened with a brief description of Meet Us by the Roaring Sea. The novel hops between the story of an unnamed “female AI coder who just lost her mother” and an inter-manuscript of a group of female medical students.
The main character’s section of the novel is written in second-person POV; a style that is not often associated with science-fiction but used to elevate the themes in Meet Us by the Roaring Sea.
Kumarasamy read a portion of the book about the main character’s work in the AI company. She described how she wanted to explore the theme that “intelligence is not consciousness” through the character’s interactions with an AI model.
Another section of the book, which Kumarasamy shared with the audience, featured a self-driving car in a situation much like the infamous “trolley problem.”
Coincidentally, according to Kumarasamy, she began crafting this novel “right before ChatGPT” in 2020 and did not expect that her writing would be so accurate to the OpenAI we have today. Along with this concept, the book explores themes of grief, human experience, and morality.
The final section that Kumarasamy read featured female medical students, who had just received televisions as a form of relief from the government. Kumarasamy remarked about how, through the inter-manuscript, she wanted to tackle questions like “what does compassion look like?” and “what is the edge state of compassion?”
The section detailed the students’ fascination with the somewhat violent imagery displayed on TV. Kumarasamy noted how she wanted to tackle the question: “how can we be vulnerable to the world if we have not seen it?”
Ultimately, reviewers commend Kumarasamy for her unique writing. Melissa Chadburn, a reviewer from The New York Times wrote: “[Her} humor is the way I dig it– deep–extending an opportunity for the reader to take a beat before absorbing the novel’s more sobering themes.”
Kumarasamy thanked the readers, who got a chance to ask her questions at the book signing after the event.
Dent extended her gratitude once again to the supporters of the series for helping this event take place. The next installment of the Seavey Reading Series, featuring Anna Baldhken, will take place on Feb. 3, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Isaac’s Auditorium.