{"id":5,"date":"2011-09-23T03:32:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T03:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sangamithra.wordpress.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:40:13","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sangamithraiyer.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A beautifully rendered debut memoir of family, legacy, conservation, the natural world\u2014and those who inhabit it. \u00a0(Milkweed Editions, 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a civil engineer, Sangamithra Iyer knows about resilience from studying soils and water. As an animal rights activist, she advocates for a revolution in how we value and relate to other species. And as the child of immigrants from India, she searches for submerged\u00a0histories.<\/p>\n

Animated by a series of questions\u2014How do we disentangle ourselves from systems of harm? Is it possible to grasp the scale of planetary sorrow and emerge with truth and love as our guides, rather than despair? What is the relationship between individual action and systemic change?\u2014this memoir takes the form of three meandering rivers, each written as a letter. Addressing the first of them to her grandfather, Iyer assembles the story of a man who embraced Gandhi\u2019s philosophy and went to work developing wells in Tamil Nadu. In a second letter, addressed to her father, she explores their shared interest in cultivating compassion for all beings. And then in a final letter, addressed to readers, she braids these explorations of her familial past with her own experiences as a woman of color and citizen of the world, always seeking ways to move beyond resignation and restore\u00a0flow.<\/p>\n

A lyrical story of lineages and an urgently needed reckoning with the ways bodies are both controlled and liberated,\u00a0Governing Bodies<\/em>\u00a0is a timeless work with profoundly timely\u00a0relevance.<\/p>\n

Where to buy:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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