The keynote as a performative genre comes arrayed; it comes with an outfit.

“I must admit that I have produced only essays, an ambiguous genre in which analysis vies with writing.” –Roland Barthes

Mary Cappello is a queer practitioner of the essay, experiments in prose, memoir, literary nonfiction, and performative criticism. A Guggenheim and Berlin Prize Fellow, she is the author of seven books that include a detour on awkwardness;...