137. Collaborators

Vyshali Manivannan is an Eelam Tamil American who is, as of this writing, a Ph.D. candidate in Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College. She has taught at the undergraduate level since 2006 and is currently teaching in the Department of Writing and Cultural Studies at Pace University - Pleasantville. Her scholarship has appeared in academic journals like The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, Digital Health, Platform, and Fibreculture, and her creative work has been featured in literary magazines like The Paris Review, Consequence, The Fanzine, and DIAGRAM. She was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize in Nonfiction and was among those listed in "Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2014" in Best American Essays 2015. She has known chronic pain since her junior year of high school.

Anji Manivannan is an Eelam Tamil American human rights lawyer who holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Virginia. As a human rights lawyer, Anji has worked at local organizations in India, Palestine, and West Africa as well as New York-based human rights and transitional justice international non-governmental organizations. She currently leads PEARL's international justice and genocide recognition efforts as the Legal Director, and has expertise in atrocity crimes, transitional justice, gender, and freedom of expression. She contributed to this project as a storyteller, knitter, fact-checker, and editor.

Mary Krienke is a writer and literary agent who received her B.A. in English and Psychology from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and her M.F.A. from Columbia University's Fiction Program. As a writer, she has been published by Joyland, Midwestern Gothic, Underground Voices, Palooka, and The Best American Poetry Blog. As an agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, she represents literary fiction and creative nonfiction that engages with intersections of culture, identity, sexuality, disability, and mental health. She contributed to this project as a storyteller, fact-checker, and editor.

Sara Fuller grew up in southeast South Dakota where she first began painting and photographing. She received her B.A. in English, with minors in Art and Psychology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video, and Related Media. She has worked as a Pilates instructor in the area of pain management and postural awareness for over 10 years. In this capacity, she has delved into embodied anatomy, muscular imbalances, and functional movement. For Sara, Pilates has been the most effective means of survival/therapy since her eventual diagnosis with fibromyalgia in 2014, which followed body temperature dysregulation and medical mysteries, starting with a head injury in middle school and other sports-related injuries in high school. She lives with her partner Mary in Brooklyn, where she continues to photograph, paint, and study the body. Sara contributed to this project as a visual artist and as Vyshali's bodyworker for over a decade.

Jeyandini Fernando is a journalist who lives and works in New York City. She grew up in Buffalo, New York as the middle child of Eelam Tamil immigrants and holds a Bachelor's degree in Legal Studies from SUNY - Buffalo and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. Her passion lies in getting justice for the human rights violations committed throughout the world, specifically in Sri Lanka. She contributed a written piece to this project.