Immigration, Community, and Identity: A Conversation with Shubha Sunder

Explore themes of immigration and community as experienced in present day Boston in conversation with the past in this dynamic book talk!

Hear from author Shubha Sunder on how themes of identity, race, and immigration emerge in her debut novel, Optional Practical Training. Our discussion with Shubha will also explore how input and expectations from others shape our sense of community, where we call home, and how “home” changes due to urban renewal, fading memories, changing communities, and our own migration to newly adopted homes. Join Shubha as she shares her perspective on writing her debut novel and how to capture stories about the communities we call home, even as they change.

Shubha Sunder is a 2025 Whiting Award winner and the author of Optional Practical Training, an immigrant novel in conversations. She won the New American Voices Award and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her first book, Boomtown Girl, a short story collection set in her hometown of Bangalore, India, won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award. She currently teaches in the creative writing MFA program at UMass Boston.

Books will be available at this event. An informal book club may be arranged. If interested please email jaydie@thewestendmuseum.org.

This project is made possible in partnership with The Immigrant Learning Center and the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.