Writers Can Read features 2 West Virginia authors

Feb. 14—HUNTINGTON — Writers Can Read, a series of author lectures, will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Heritage Station, featuring West Virginia writers Neema Avashia and Bob Lane Bragg.

Both will read selections from their works before an open mic session for anyone who would like to read their own poetry or prose.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Avashia was born and reared in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013.

Her first book, "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place," was published by West Virginia University Press in March 2022. The book was named Best LGBTQ Memoir of 2022 by BookRiot, and was one of the New York Public Library's Best Books of 2022. She lives in Boston with her partner, Laura, and her daughter, Kahani.

Bragg was raised near Montgomery, West Virginia, and has degrees in electrical engineering technology, electronic engineering technology and civil engineering. A registered professional engineer, he has worked for the past 38 years in consulting engineering. His interest in the Sodder case, which involves the disappearance of five siblings on Christmas Eve in Fayette County, West Virginia, began when he was a boy and first saw the Sodder billboard outside Fayetteville around 1967. He began researching the Sodder case in 2015 and has spent six years putting together the book, "No Direct Evidence," about the history of the case and what could possibly have happened to the five Sodder children.

Heritage Station at 210 11th St.

For more information, please contact michaelconnick@gmail.com.