Sangamithra Iyer
Sangamithra Iyer is a writer and a licensed professional civil engineer who holds a B.E. in Civil Engineering from the Cooper Union, an M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College, where she was a recipient of a Hertog Fellowship. She currently works on water supply infrastructure planning and watershed assessment for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
Sangu has served as the Assistant Editor of Satya Magazine and a co-producer of the Women's Collective monthly radio program on WBAI. She has volunteered at primate rescue and rehabilitation sanctuaries in North America and in Africa. Sangu is an Associate for the environmental action tank Brighter Green and a member of the Associates Board for the Asian American Writers' Workshop.
She is the recipient of scholarships to the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. Herwriting explores issues related to animals, social and environmental justice and the intersection of the personal and the political.
Her TEDx talk is an adaptation of her essay "Soiled Hands" published in the anthologyPrimate People: Saving Nonhuman Primates through Education, Advocacy and Sanctuary (University of Utah Press). She is currently working on her first book, Divining Water, which blends memoir, family history and reportage.