Magazine, and “A graceful exploration of identity, community, and contradictions,” by Scalawag.

It has been called “A timely collection that begins to fill the gap in literature focused mainly on the white male experience” by Ms. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was published by West Virginia University Press in March. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Neema Avashia (she/her) is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. You can purchase your own copy of Neema’s book, Another Appalachia, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

This program is presented in partnership with Rangoli Pittsburgh, as part of Rangoli Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ AAPI Day of Visibility celebrations. With lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, gun culture, and more, Another Appalachia mixes nostalgia and humor, sadness and sweetness, personal reflection and universal questions, with impeccable balance. It is a work that offers another view into a place few consider to contain multitudes, and insists that it does.

Join us for a conversation on intersecting marginalized identities in Appalachia with Lambda Literary Award Finalist Neema Avashia, author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, and Namita Dwarkanath, a University of Pittsburgh law student and prior advocate for gender-based violence prevention.Īnother Appalachia presents a series of 17 essays that navigate the nuance of a childhood full of paradox, examining both the roots and the resonance of Neema’s identity as a queer desi Appalachian woman, while encouraging readers to envision more complex versions of both Appalachia and the nation as a whole. For the past five years, it’s been a day of celebration and of visibility for this unique intersection of identities, right in between Asian American Heritage Month and Pride Month. On June 1st of 2019, Rangoli Pittsburgh introduced LGBTQ+ AAPI Day of Visibility, and it’s since been recognized for 5 years in a row by official proclamation from both Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania.

Neema avashia book