Presentation at Hunter College: Writing With and Like Water

Writing with and like Water

Sangamithra Iyer will discuss her book, GOVERNING BODIES: A MEMOIR, A CONFLUENCE, A WATERSHED, (Milkweed Editions), a lyrical reckoning of the ways bodies (human, animal, and water) are controlled and liberated. Structured like the confluence of three rivers, the book is a watershed holding and connecting many different streams of thought spanning personal history, the rights of animals, and the memory of water. Sangu will discuss her process of writing with water and like water, as she considers water as co-witness to and shaper of history. The book connects water divining with engineering, engineering with poetry, and poetry with purpose.

About the Author:

Sangamithra Iyer is the winner of the Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction for her first book, GOVERNING BODIES: A MEMOIR, A CONFLUENCE , A WATERSHED (Milkweed Editions). She is a licensed professional engineer, environmental planner, and writer whose career has been shaped by water. She holds a B.E. in Civil Engineering from The Cooper Union, an M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College. She was also awarded a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and a Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowship at the New York Public Library, where she had the pleasure of researching water histories on top of a former drinking water reservoir.

Sangamithra Iyer was recently featured in an interview with Parul Kaupr in Los Angeles Review of Books, and was on The Between the Covers Podcast with David Naimon, and her book was selected for the Between the Lines Salon in Gloria Steinem's Living Room, where she was in conversation with Madhur Anand.

If you would like to order a book for distribution at the event, please order at this link and enjoy 10% off using the code HUNTER at checkout.

Please note "NYC H2O Hunter College" in the order comments. Orders must be placed by 9/18 in order to be picked up at the event.