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Becoming Ammi

A Queer, Desi Journey into Parenthood

Author: Neema Avashia

From the award-winning author of Another Appalachia, an intimate portrait of queer motherhood and mother-loss—with meditations on grief, familial legacies, and selfhood

In Becoming Ammi, author and educator Neema Avashia reflects on a new stage of life: becoming a parent.

Through short reflective chapters, Avashia weaves together stories of early motherhood as a Desi, queer, Appalachian, and non-gestational parent (a parent who did not physically carry or give birth to the child).

Becoming Ammi is shaped by by Avashia’s real-time reflections written like diary entries—some fully formed, written during the quiet of 3 a.m. feedings, while others are fragmented, scribbled down in the small moments she could carve out each day. Together, the essays culminate into a deeply personal meditation on her transforming sense of self.

Written in 3 parts, the book explores: