#VeryAsian in Appalachia – Extending conversations 

Event: Bookread Meeting

Book: Another Appalachia (by Neema Avashi) 

Date: December 9^th at noon 

Venue: Zoom 

https://wvu.zoom.us/j/96263090173?pwd=RUtQL2ZXSklmRUNudzRlakJnVDMwdz09 

The Coalition for Asian/Asian American Scholars, Staff, and Students (CAAASSS) invites you to our bookread meeting on December 9^th (Friday). We will read “Another Appalachia” by Neema Avashia, who is a queer Asian American teacher and writer, and share our experiences for being Asian/Asian scholars, staff, and students at WVU and in West Virginia. We further hope to share ideas about how we can better address interests and concerns that Asian/Asian scholars, staff, and students have to people at WVU.  

We mean this bookread meeting to be informal and casual. Please join our conversations while you take a lunch or coffee break of the day!  

E-book copy is available upon request. Contact Kirsten Song at Kirsten.song@mail.wvu.edu. If you have any questions, contact Kirsten Song.

What is ““Another Appalachia” IS ABOUT? (Published on March 2022 (168pp, WVU Press): When Neema Avashia tells people where she’s from, their response is nearly always a disbelieving “There are Indian people in West Virginia?” A queer Asian American teacher and writer, Avashia fits few Appalachian stereotypes. But the lessons she learned in childhood about race and class, gender and sexuality continue to inform the way she moves through the world today: how she loves, how she teaches, how she advocates, how she struggles. Another Appalachia examines both the roots and the resonance of Avashia’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. 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.