Sunu P. Chandy’s award-winning poetry collection, book tour kicks off in Washington, D.C.
Regal House has released My Dear Comrades, by Sunu P. Chandy, which is available in bookstores and online. My Dear Comrades was the winner of the 2021 Terry J. Cox Prize. Chandy has a unique perspective as a queer Asian American woman, and through her social justice work, including as a civil rights attorney.
“In Sunu Chandy’s My Dear Comrades, she turns her exquisite attention toward everyday rituals of violence, indoctrination, and subjugation,” said author Aracelis Girmay. “At the heart of her refusal is a poetics and an ethics of discipline, tenderness, and attention that reminds me of the work of Martín Espada and Audre Lorde.”
“My Dear Comrades” resists easy answers as it breaks down barriers by honestly exploring both the societal and inner dynamics of oppression and resistance. Poet Nicole Cooley refers to “My Dear Comrades” as “a love letter to the creation of community, queer family building and fighting against injustice.” Chandy is an accomplished poet, with her work included in “The Penguin Book of Indian Poets,” “The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood,” and “This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation.”
“While my initial impulse to write is often to process and reflect on experiences, ultimately it is in the sharing of our deepest concerns that we can find community and even solace alongside one another,” said Chandy. “And poetry can serve as an incredible vehicle for reminding each other about our shared humanity in these joyful, tragic, times.”
Book tour kicks off in DC
On March 28 at 7:00 p.m., Chandy will read and discuss her work with National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Kierra Johnson at Politics and Prose NW, in Washington, D.C., kicking off her tour. Other stops on Chandy’s tour will include events at The Writer’s Center (Bethesda, Maryland, March 29, at 7 p.m.); Trident Booksellers (Boston, April 3, at 7 p.m.); All She Wrote (Sommerville, Mass., April 4, at 5 p.m.); Bluestockings (New York, May 19, at 5:30 p.m.); and Women and Children First (Chicago, July 27, at 7 p.m.); among others. For a full list of upcoming events visit: www.sunuchandy.net/my-dear-com.