Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia

In this title, the word “Indian” means South Asian, not Native American. The author grew up in the Charleston, West Virginia, suburbs, where her father, ironically, was the physician for Union Carbide for the sister plant to the plant in Bhopal, India, that blew up in 1984 causing the deaths of thousands of people. This is a book of autobiographical essays, not strictly a memoir, but it is fascinating and engaging from the beginning. Having this book available really helps us understand the depth of diversity in our region. It is the second book illuminating South Asian life in urban Appalachia that I’ve learned about.  Southbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social Change is by Anjali Enjeti, a South Asian who moved from Detroit to Chattanooga in 1984 at the age of ten.  “Another Appalachia is a breath of fresh air, a work that the public is in dire need of reading. Wide and expansive as the land the author calls home, this essay collection subverts the mainstream’s hyper foc