Nov
4
5:30 PM17:30

The Thrill of the Game: Literary Sports Writing Workshop

I’m going to be teaching a literary sportswriting workshop at the Dayton library! Hope to see you there!

The Thrill of the Game: Literary Sports Writing Workshop

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Main Library - Dayton Public Library

Community Room A

Whether you're a current or former athlete yourself or just love watching the game, humans are fascinated by the ways our bodies can move. But how do we write about sports so readers feel like they're experiencing the magic themselves? In this literary sportswriting workshop, you'll craft an essay that captures the fun, excitement, and edge-of-your-seat thrill of your favorite sport. Whether you love team sports, action sports, or individual physical pursuits like running or yoga, you'll deep dive into memory to recall the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures that bring sports to life, and engage with writing prompts that will help you find the story behind the story––the social, political, and personal aspects that make sports more than the sum of their parts and keep readers coming back for more. In addition to reading examples from other sportswriters, Mandy Shunnarah, author of Midwest Shreds, will share how they used these skills while writing their book about skating at skateparks in the Midwest, and help you craft your own narrative.

Click here for more info

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Oct
18
to Oct 20

Lit Youngstown

I’m thrilled to not only be able to attend and sell books at this multi-day festival, but also to do two presentations!

Friday, October 18th, at 9:15am:

Creative Reading with Richard Klin, Mandy Shunnarah, Robert Walicki, Connor Watkins-Xu

Mandy Shunnarah: Reading a suite of Palestinian poems

A poetry reading by Mandy Shunnarah, a Palestinian writer. Poem topics will span Palestine, nature, current events, family, and more.

Saturday, October 19th, at 2:30pm:

A shared session

From Beginning to Award-Winning: Creating a Community Magazine with Andrea Iglar

Do You Even Write, Bruh?: Literary Sports Writing with Mandy Shunnarah

From roller skating to powerlifting and soccer to trail running, sports capture the imagination of spectators and participants. But often, sports are excluded from literary writing. Capture sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of physical movement for creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

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An evening of poetry, art, and activism
Aug
28
8:00 PM20:00

An evening of poetry, art, and activism

Please join us for an event with visiting poet, Sunu P. Chandy, alongside featured local presenters including poet, Mandy Shunnarah, artist, Sa'dia Rehman, and advocate, Suparna Bhaskaran. They will each share work and then be in conversation including about art and activism. All are welcome.

Time: 8pm

Place: Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus, OH

Date: Wednesday, August 28th


Suparna Bhaskaran is an author, educator, and scholar. A queer immigrant from the Third World who makes homes between the US Midwest and the global South. Suparna is a founding member of OPAWL: Building AAPI Feminist Leadership. OPAWL is a grassroots member-led community that organizes for social and economic justice and elevates the voices, visibility, and progressive leadership of Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and nonbinary people in Ohio. She has taught in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality programs at Antioch College, Agnes Scott College and The Ohio State University. She is the Director for Research Partnerships at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Her publications include, Made In India: Decolonizations, Queer Sexualities, Trans/national Projects; Pinklining: How Wall Street’s Predatory Products Pillage Women's Wealth, Opportunities, & Futures; and the Color of Wealth in Chicago.

Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Alabama-born, Appalachian and Palestinian-American writer who now calls Columbus, Ohio, home. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and others. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was published in July 2024 by Belt Publishing. Read more at mandyshunnarah.com.

Sa’dia Rehman (all pronouns) is a multidisciplinary artist and educator focusing on race, empire, and labor. Their work explores structures of the family, the nation, the border. Rehman questions how we live within these systems and how they impact who we are, the desire to rearrange, and take them apart. Rehman has exhibited work at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Fabric Workshop & Museum, Queens Museum, Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and Pakistan National Council of the Arts. Rehman received the Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson Fellowship and the Meredith Morabito and Henrietta Mantooth Fellowship. Rehman was awarded residencies at the ArtLab at Harvard University, Film/Video Studio at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Art Omi, Abrons Art Center, Asian American Arts Alliance, Edward Albee Foundation. Their work was featured in Aperture, Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Harpers, The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, Colonize This! Young Women of Color On Today’s Feminism, Breakthru Radio and HyperAllergic.

Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a social justice activist as a poet and a civil rights attorney. She is the daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India, and lives in Washington, DC with her family. Sunu’s award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, was published by Regal House. Sunu’s work can be found in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets and The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Sunu serves on the board of the Transgender Law Center, and has been named as one of the Queer Women of Washington. Sunu is currently a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward supporting work across the teams including, fighting back against the attacks on racial equity and inclusion, and working alongside partner organizations to help build a nation that does right by all of us.

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Street Cat Zine Fest
Jul
20
12:00 PM12:00

Street Cat Zine Fest

I’m excited to be back at Street Cat Zine Fest in Chillicothe, Ohio, for the second year!

I’ll be slinging zines (one fiction, one nonfiction) at my table, as well as copies of Midwest Shreds, and possibly some weird collages and weavings I made! It was super fun last year and everyone is delightful.

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Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America's Heartland Book Launch1
Jul
16
8:00 PM20:00

Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America's Heartland Book Launch1

Join author and skater Mandy Shunnarah for the launch of Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America's Heartland, out from Belt Publishing on July 16th, 2024. The book covers the history of skating in the Midwest, which is part cultural history, part travelogue, and part memoir.

There will be a reading by the author with a Q&A afterward.

When: Tuesday, July 16th, at 8pm

Where: Two Dollar Radio Headquarters at 1124 Parsons Ave, Columbus, OH 43206

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Jul
13
to Jul 14

Columbus Book Festival

I’m going to be at the Columbus Book Festival pretty much all weekend!

Find me at the Prologue Bookshop tent on Saturday at 2pm onward and the rest of the time, before and after, at the Bookspace Columbus tent!

I’ll be signing and selling books, so come see me!

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Join me in conversation with Julie Rae Powers about queer Appalachian photography and their new book, Deep Ruts!
Jun
21
7:30 PM19:30

Join me in conversation with Julie Rae Powers about queer Appalachian photography and their new book, Deep Ruts!

Come out to Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, June 21st, at 7:30pm! I’ll be interviewing photographer Julie Rae Powers about their new book of queer Appalachian photography, Deep Ruts.

There will be hootin’, hollerin’, and, of course, celebratin’!

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Rink Rats, Derby Devils, and Skatepark Shredders: Stories from Columbus Skaters
Jun
8
5:30 PM17:30

Rink Rats, Derby Devils, and Skatepark Shredders: Stories from Columbus Skaters

Join me and a group of powerhouse skaters and writers as we entertain you with stories of life on wheels at the Columbus Arts Festival!

Rink Rats, Derby Devils, and Skatepark Shredders: Stories from Columbus Skaters, hosted by Mandy Shunnarah

Word is Art: Storytelling

Saturday, June 8

5:30pm - 6:30pm

Word is Art & Acoustic Lounge

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