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 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, <a href="https://wvupressonline.com/node/903">Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Town</a>, 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.&nbsp;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:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFmPVyTpPLQ">Spoken Traditions of Appalachia</a>, recorded reading with AvashiaAvashia’s <a href="https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/02/07/lgbtqi-hate-racism-massachusetts-neema-avashia">reporting on LGBTQ rights and motherhood</a> for WBUR, where she is a Cognoscenti contributor





















 
 














































 

 
 
 

 

 
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