Neema Avashia discusses the first pages of her essay collection and memoir, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, the structural power of list-making, the second person, and her twist on the usual advice: write the specific to convey the universal.
Avashia’s first pages can be found here.
Help local bookstores and our authors by buying this book on Bookshop.
Click here for the audio/video version of this interview.
The above link will be available for 48 hours. Missed it? The podcast version is always available, both here and on your favorite podcast platform.
Neema Avashia was born and raised in southern West Virginia to parents who immigrated to the United States from India. She has been a history and Civics teacher in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and now coaches ethnic studies teachers across the distinct. Her debut memoir, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, was a Weatherford Award finalist in nonfiction, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in lesbian memoir/biography, a New York Public Library Best Book of 2022, and was named the best LGTBQ+ memoir of 2022 by Book Riot.
Passages: Neema Avashia on Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place