AWP23—Neema Avashia
Neema Avaisha is an author and a public school civics and history teacher in Boston. She was born and raised in southern West Virginia to Indian immigrant parents. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Town, explores her early life and development in Appalachia and was published with West Virginia University Press. It was a finalist for the 2022 New England Book Award and won for Book Riot’s 2022 Best LGBTQ+ Memoir.
In this episode, we talk about Avashia’s unique position as writer of a queer memoir that depicts one person’s experience and the clear understanding that she’s not a representative for all of queer Appalachia. Given all that, she says was still surprised at the “emotionally resonant” reception she received. We discuss Avashia’s self-given imperative to reinject nuance and depth into the existing narrative and sociopolitical climate. She sets herself the goal of continuously asking “why?” throughout her work and aims to create a relationship with her reader that allows space for exploration and discourages a rush for easy answers.
We got to chat about her unconventional route to publication with WVU (hooray for indies!), what book tour for a memoir is like when your audience seemingly already knows your personal life, and the joy of finding a publisher with shared geographic roots.
Check out her book and the various outlets for which she rights about education, LGBTQ and BIPOC issues, and motherhood.
Honorable Mentions:
Spoken Traditions of Appalachia, recorded reading with Avashia
Avashia’s reporting on LGBTQ rights and motherhood for WBUR, where she is a Cognoscenti contributor
Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair
