Alumni/ae Association Virtual Book Club

Join us for Our 3rd Alumni/ae Association Virtual Book Club 
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | 6:00 to 7:15 PM ET 

Northeastern Law’s Alumni/ae Association Virtual Book Club became an instant “best seller” when it launched in 2020. This year, we are delighted to feature a discussion with two Northeastern Law authors: 

Sofia Ali-Khan ’00
A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for White America

In conversation with:
Professor Hemanth Gundavaram, Clinical Professor and Associate Dean for Experiential Education; Director, Immigrant Justice Clinic; Director, Clinical Programs, Northeastern University School of Law

Sunu Chandy ’98
My Dear Comrades

In conversation with:
Rishi Reddi '92, Director of Environmental Justice, MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs; Author of Karma and Other Stories and Passage West.

*****

Praise for Sofia Ali-Khan’s book:
“… in this captivating portrait of America, Sofia Ali-Khan makes the case that ‘a good country,’ as her immigrant parents would call their home, should be strong enough to confront its past. At a time when many would rather ban or bury the truth, Ali-Khan bravely faces it in this bracing and necessary book.” 

– Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies  

Praise for Sunu Chandy’s forthcoming book:
“This collection proceeds from a damaged and flawed world and forges a complicated, abounding beauty.”

– Rajiv Mohabir, author of Cutlish and Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir.

Sofia Ali-Khan is a social justice lawyer-turned-writer. She is the author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for White America, available in many places including Amazon. As an attorney, she worked for Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Prairie State Legal Services in Illinois and the American Bar Association. During this time, Sofia became a national leader on the right to language access and founded an offsite legal clinic for undocumented workers with health emergencies. She was also a founding board member and activist with the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) for eight years, and has spoken to dozens of academic, interfaith, radio and television audiences on aspects of Islamic faith and history. Sofia’s writing at the intersection of politics, race, history and Muslim America has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, TIME magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Tricycle magazine and on several other platforms. She has appeared as a storyteller for “The Moth” in Philadelphia and Boston, for The House of Speakeasy in New York City and for the National Writers Series at the City Opera House in Traverse City. A second-generation Pakistani American born and raised in the United States, she now lives in Ontario, Canada, with her family.  

>> Download the discussion guide for A Good Country

Sofia will read a passage from the book and discuss her book in depth. We encourage participants to read her book in advance and we will allow for questions and answers.

Sunu Chandy’s forthcoming collection of poems, My Dear Comrades, won the Terry J. Cox award in 2021 and will be published by Regal House in spring 2023. Her book is available for preorder now through Regal House, or through your favorite booksellers before her March 28th publication date. Sunu’s work can also be found in publications including Asian American Literary Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Poets on Adoption, Split this Rock’s online social justice database, The Quarry, and in anthologies including The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood and This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. In addition to her law degree, Sunu is a graduate of Earlham College, where she majored in women’s studies/peace and global studies. Sunu also completed her MFA in creative writing/poetry at Queens College, City University of New York. Sunu began her legal career as a union-side labor and employment lawyer in New York City, and has subsequently worked as a civil rights attorney, including as a litigator with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for 15 years. Sunu is currently the legal director of the National Women’s Law Center and serves on the board of the Transgender Law Center. Sunu was included as one the 2021 Queer Women of Washington. The daughter of immigrants from Kerala, India, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her family. Keep in touch with Sunu via Twitter: @SunuChandy. 

Sunu will discuss her forthcoming book, her book development process, and how her life as a civil rights attorney and activist has impacted her work. My Dear Comrades is currently available for pre-order from Regal House.