In The Dead Wrestler Elegies, celebrated poet W. Todd Kaneko mines the history of professional wrestling to examine complex relationships between fathers and sons and makes the wrestling ring an allegory of childhood, desire, and loss. All this as an Asian American and in spite of the racist melodramas that frequently play out in the personas of the wrestlers and between the athletes and audience. Kaneko will read from his book and discuss the racial dynamics of the sport, writing from and about Asian masculinity, and the literary properties of spandex. A book signing will follow the event.