Article and photo by Jasmine Durst
Despite the cold weather, the Seavey Reading Series kicked off their first event of the semester with a full auditorium on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
Anna Badkhen is an award-winning nonfiction author and journalist with eight books of nonfiction, including memoirs and essay collections drawn from her experience as a war correspondent.
Her newest essay collection, “To See Beyond,” is scheduled for release on April 28, 2026.
Brianna Luby, a senior creative writing and publishing & editing double major with a minor in English, introduced the guest speaker and explained Badkhen’s books and rewards.
Luby said that Badkhen’s work “encourages people to read through another eye” by utilizing lyrical prose, and that she could not stop reading Badkhen’s book, “Fisherman’s Blues,” about life in a West African fishing village.Badkhen is a professor of writing at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches creative nonfiction as well as introductory courses in fiction and journalism.
She has reported on more than a dozen wars across three continents–Europe, Asia and Africa)– beginning her career with coverage of the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
She has also served as a contributing editor to Mānoa.She also served as a guest editor of prose and poetry for publications including Emergence Magazine and Nautilus.
Badkhen said that she visited the Whitney Museum of American Art, where “50-70 contemporary American artists contribute bi-yearly.” She said artists articulate callouts to suffering through music, art and literature.
Badkhen was born and raised in Russia.She did not know she could go out, write and travel since it was looked down upon in her hometown to leave.
According to Badkhen, the imperial boomerang is when an empire starts to expire.
She said she thought a new kind of world would be in her children’s lives, but that she now believes she may see it in hers.Badkhen explained that in “Fisherman’s Blues,” she had spent nine months fishing in the Senegal with fishing captains, and every town had a spot where fishermen gathered around a campfire to drink hot beverages.
In the excerpt she read, she described the scene of one of the fishermen passing around his phone with a picture of a fish his friend sent him, asking if anyone knew what kind of fish it was and if it could be caught in the nearby area.
When they said it was likely not a local fish, the “Sea Goddess” of a fisherman’s fantasy was introduced into the story.
The “Sea Goddess was said to have webs between her fingers and inside her elbows, and she was said to have a long fish tail with shoulder-length wavy hair.”
A student in the audience asked what Badkhen herself thought about the fisherman possibly seeing a mermaid.
Badkhen replied: “People should not say it doesn’t exist. They should say they haven’t seen it yet.”
Badken ended her readings with an excerpt from her newest essay collection that is coming out in April.
The excerpt discussed souvenirs throughout the world from centuries ago, maybe even millennia, and from across the globe.
Some of the mentioned souvenirs included fossil fuels, scorched lands, stone markings and prayer beads.
She wrote, “What does that Earth remember?”
Badken said that she writes “a kitchen sink of rabbit holes,” a mix of everything, and she tries to “bring everything in the world to coherence” to make it less disjointed.
Badkhen left off with: “I don’t think it is responsible to be sane in this world. This is not a sane world.”
The next event in the 2025-2026 Seavey Reading Series will take place on Feb. 24th in Isaacs Auditorium at 7 p.m. and feature the Writers Institute’s very own founder, Gary Fincke. Hope to see you there!