Sandy with author Robert Moor doing an event for his new book at Rough Draft bookstore in Kingston, NY (July ‘26).

Speaking

I’m available for hire to speak about topics related to gender and/or mental health. In my near-decade now of commenting publicly on these topics, I’ve spoken and read for crowds big and small, at venues varying from medical schools to churches, from community centers to bars. I’ve shared my words in classrooms and even living rooms on college campuses, as well as to large packed auditoria — even a literal Broadway theater.

For potential paid speaking engagements: Please contact my speaking agent Leslie Shipman, who handles such on my behalf. Thank you so much for your interest.

For other potential opportunities, you may contact me directly. If you have zero budget for my speaking fee itself, feel free to inquire nonetheless and tell me more; I will consider your situation. (Note, if I’ll need to travel, I’ll at least require reimbursement for such.)

My consulting page includes testimonials from clients. See this page for more fan mail I’ve gotten through the years related to my writing and speaking about these topics. Also see: these Starter Packs curated by topic of my works, and this page with more about my audio work specifically.

Sandy on stage with band on tour with Pop-Up Magazine, summer 2017

Selected Appearances

  • Corporate speaking engagements (ongoing), e.g. 45 minute speech for employees of a health-related company and Q&A (April ‘26)

  • Consulting (ongoing), e.g. one hour with a therapy practice’s practitioners.

  • My guest appearances for college/university classes (ongoing), including: NYU, The New School, Smith College, Bard College, Brown University, The University of Iowa, Fordham University, USC (the latter music students at the invitation of Prof. Nathaniel Sloane; we discussed the TAL story on my singing voice). Latest was Columbia in 2025.

  • Grand Rounds, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2019) - invited to lecture on future of mental health care for psychiatrists themselves (and psychiatrists-in-training)

  • Keynote address, University of Iowa’s Examined Life medical humanities conference (2018) - keynote on the future of mental health care

  • Pop-Up Magazine (spring 2017), “Hearing Voices” a piece I reported on the Hearing Voices Network, which I then performed on stages during a 7-city national tour, including aforementioned literal Broadway theater, soundtracked live by their in-house band. Pictured above.

  • My first book’s hardcover and paperback tours (2018 – 2019) consisted of ~35 stops, including the Texas, Miami and Los Angeles Times book festivals/fairs, and events where I read alongside the likes of Alexander Chee, Akwaeke Emezi, and Hanif Abdurraqib. My interlocutors at AKOMP-specific events included: Meredith Talusan (official launch, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn); Esmé Weijun Wang; Amanda Chicago Lewis (Skylight Books, Los Angeles); Adrian Nicole LeBlanc; Jessica Hopper (Women and Children First, Chicago); Anne Helen Petersen; Kevin Nguyen (Books Are Magic, Brooklyn; AKOMP paperback launch 2019); Rahawa Haile (East Bay Booksellers, Oakland, CA; whole tour’s conclusion). See photos that follow:

Above: A packed reading at Powells, Portland OR, just a week after AKOMP published (January 2018); me and Esmé Weijun Wang after our AKOMP event in San Francisco (February, 2018); the store’s owner introducing me at Books & Books, Miami (March, 2018).

Below: Me performing a piece for House of Speakeasy in Manhattan (spring 2018); me afterwards, signing books. Below that: My reading during the Franklin Park Readings Series in Brooklyn, and our stacked lineup afterwards: Alexander Chee, Gregory Pardlo, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Mike Scalise.