'Appalachia is more complex, and more nuanced, than the dominant narratives about it allow for ... I wanted to write the kind of book that makes it impossible to see Appalachia, or its people, in a reductive fashion.' -- AvashiaNeema:
: Neema Avashia is a regular contributor to Cognoscenti. She’s written several pieces for us over the years, mostly on topics related to education and identity. She’s out with a new book of essays this spring, titled “Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place.".” What do you want people to understand as a result of reading your book?
People had been sold a narrative about Appalachia and its people that did not resonate for me, and did not reflect the people and place I love. And I realized that while my experience of growing up in that space might have been anomalous, it merited writing about. Appalachia is more complex, and more nuanced, than the dominant narratives about it allow for. I wanted to offer another narrative.
When I lived in Appalachia, the message I got from so many of the adults was that I had to leave — that there was no viable economic future for me at home. I was eager to leave, to experience city life, to inhabit a more diverse space. I’m deeply concerned about the level of polarization in our country right now. Our communities are profoundly segregated in so many ways — based on race and class and ideology — that we can end up spending the majority of our time in echo chambers, unable to see why other people might think a different way than we do.
Spending so much of my career with adolescents who are deep in the throes of identity development has taught me a lot about how important it is for young people to have access to books in which they can see themselves — their identities and their experiences — reflected. I didn’t have access to books like that when I was growing up, and it made the process of coming into my own identity infinitely harder.
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