ABOUT
Hello! My name is Anshuman Iddamsetty. I'm an activist, writer and podcast producer. My non-fiction debut, Hello Pig: Notes For a Fat Future, is forthcoming on Strange Light. I'm represented by Martha Webb of CookeMcDermid. My artistic practice explores the concept of fat pleasure through nude portraiture. You can learn more about the project on my Patreon.
My published writing can be found on The Outline, Hazlitt, The National Post, and the first edition of Best Canadian Sports Writing (ECW Press, 2017). I was recently nominated for the 2019 Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism for the essay, How Video Games Demonize Fat People.
My podcasting work is exclusively focused on giving diverse voices a first-in-class platform to share their stories while executing the objectives of a mission-based production studio.
Previously, I was the host and showrunner of Vanguard by Shopify Studios, a podcast exploring the entrepreneurial journeys of small business owners from marginalized identities. Each episode featured an intimate conversation with small business owners from around the world covering such urgent topics as Islamophobia in independent comic book publishing, struggling with fatphobia and eating disorders while working in luxury fashion, and the systemic injustices facing black women entrepreneurs. It ran for two seasons. My duties covered the entire production stack from creative ideation to budget management, scriptwriting to go-to-market strategy, and, finally, hosting and interviewing.
Before Shopify, I was an audiovisual producer for Penguin Random House Canada and the art director of Hazlitt, their online literary magazine, where I produced The Arcade and the first season of Cavern of Secrets. And before that, I was a radio producer at CBC Radio One, producing such shows as GO, Know Your Rights, and Spark.
PRESS
Fat and loving it: this man says life improved when he gained weight
Tapestry, CBC Radio One
"Writer and activist, Anshuman Iddamsetty, says being fat ... and happy about it ... is an act of 'disobedience' in a culture that expects us to want to be thin."
NOW Magazine
“My life began when I decided to gain as much weight as possible. The moment I chose to become fat, everything changed.”