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Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (born Chitralekha


Banerjee, July 29, 1956[2] ) is an Indian-American
author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor
of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing
Program.

lar organisation in Houston, Daya. She also serves on the


emeritus board of Pratham Houston, a non-prot organisation working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian
children.

Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage won an


American Book Award in 1995, and two of her novels
(The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart) as well 3 Works
as a short story The Word Love were adapted into lms.
Mistress of Spices was short-listed for the Orange Prize.
Currently, Sister of My Heart, Oleander Girl, Palace of 3.1 Fiction and poetry
Illusions, and One Amazing Thing have all been optioned
Divakarunis work has been published in over 50 magato be made into movies or TV serials.
zines, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker
Divakarunis works are largely set in India and the United
and her writing has been included in over 50 antholoStates, and often focus on the experiences of South Asian
gies including the Best American Short Stories, the O.
immigrants. She writes for children as well as adults
Henry Prize Stories, and the Pushcart Prize anthology.
and has published novels in multiple genres, including
Her ction has been translated into 29 languages, includrealistic ction, historical ction, magical realism, myth
ing Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian, Bengali, Turkish and
and fantasy.
Japanese.
Divakaruni began her writing career as a poet. Her two
latest volumes of poetry are Black Candle and Leaving
1 Background
Yuba City. She won several awards for her poems, such
as a Gerbode Award, a Barbara Deming Memorial Award
Divakaruni was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. She re- and an Allen Ginsberg Award.
ceived her B.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1976.
That same year, she went to the United States to attend Divakarunis rst collection of stories Arranged Marriage,
Wright State University where she received a masters de- which won an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine
gree. She received a PhD in English from the University Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award,
of California, Berkeley in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe greatly increased her visibility. Her major novels include The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart, Queen
was the subject of her doctoral dissertation).
of Dreams, One Amazing Thing, Palace of Illusions, Oleander Girl and Before We Visit the Goddess. Although
the greater part of her novels are written for adults, she
2 Career
has also written a young adult fantasy series called The
Brotherhood of the Conch which, unlike many of her
Divakaruni put herself through graduate school by taking adult novels, takes place wholly in India and draws on
on odd jobs, working as a babysitter, a store clerk, a bread the culture and folklore of that region. The rst book
slicer in a bakery, a laboratory assistant at Wright State of the series, The Conch Bearer was nominated for the
University, and a dining hall attendant at International 2003 Bluebonnet Award. It was listed in the Publishers
House, Berkeley. She was a graduate teaching assistant Weekly Best Books of the Year, Booklist Editors Choice,
at U.C.Berkeley She taught at Foothill College in Los Al- Pacic Northwest Young Readers Choice Award Master
tos, California and Diablo Valley College. She now lives List and the Rebecca Caudill Award Master List. The
and teaches in Texas, where she is the McDavid professor second book of the series, The Mirror of Fire and Dreamof Creative Writing at the nationally ranked University of ing came out in 2005 and the third and nal book of the
Houston Creative Writing Program.
series, Shadowland, was published in 2009.
Divakaruni is a co-founder and former president of
Maitri, a helpline founded in 1991 for South Asian
women dealing with domestic abuse. Divakaruni serves
on its advisory board and on the advisory board of a simi-

Divakarunis novel The Palace of Illusions, was a national


best-seller for over a year in India and[3] is a re-telling
of the Indian epic The Mahabharata from Draupadi's
perspective.[4]
1

3.2

Film, television, theater and opera

Divakarunis novel The Mistress of Spices was released as


a lm of the same name in 2005. It was directed by Paul
Mayeda Berges, with a script by Berges and his wife,
Gurinder Chadha. The lm starred Aishwarya Rai and
Dylan McDermott.

AWARDS

5.2 Young adult and childrens


Neela: Victory Song (2002)
Grandma and the Great Gourd (2013) (childrens
picture book)

In addition, her novel Sister of my Heart was made into 5.2.1 Brotherhood of the Conch series
a television series in Tamil and aired in India, as Anbulla
The Conch Bearer (2003)
Snegithiye (Loving Friend).[5]
The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming (2005)
Her story Clothes from the collection Arranged Marriage
was adapted into a play and performed by the Sacramento
Shadowland (2009)
Theater Company in 2010 and won an award. It is being performed in May 2006 by Ryerson University in
Toronto.
5.3 Poetry
In 2013 Divakaruni wrote a chamber opera for the Hous The Reason for Nasturtiums (1990)
ton Grand Opera titled River of Light about the life of an
Indian woman in Houston. It was performed by Houston
Black Candle (1991)
Grand Opera (HGOCo) in 2014 and received excellent
reviews. It was performed by Festival Opera in the San
Leaving Yuba City (1997)
Francisco Bay area in 2015.
Indian Movie, New Jersey
Her novel One Amazing Thing has currently been optioned by the Hollywood production company Gillen
Tiger Mask RItual
Group.

Personal life

Divakaruni lives in Houston with her husband Murthy.


She has two sons, Anand and Abhay (whose names she
has used in her childrens novels).[6]

5.4 Anthologies
Multitude:Cross Cultural Readings for Writers
(1993)
We Too Sing America (1997)
California Uncovered: Stories for the 21st Century
(2004)

Works

5.1

Fiction

Arranged Marriage: Stories (1995)


The Mistress of Spices (1997)
Sister of My Heart (1999)
The Unknown Errors of our Lives (2001)
The Vine of Desire (2002)
Queen of Dreams (2004)
The Lives of Strangers (2005)
The Palace of Illusions: A Novel (2008)
One Amazing Thing (2010)

6 Awards
1995: The American Book Award for Arranged
Marriage: Stories
1995: PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary
Award for Arranged Marriage: Stories
1995: Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction
for Arranged Marriage: Stories
1997: The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize and the
Pushcart Prize for poems in Leaving Yuba City: New
and Selected Poems
1997: Mistress of Spices shortlisted for The Orange
Prize

Oleander Girl (2013)

1997: Los Angeles Times Best Books of 1997 for


Mistress of Spices

Before We Visit the Goddess a novel Simon & Schuster (2016) [ISBN 978-1476792002]

1998: Seattle Times Best Paperbacks of 1998 for


Mistress of Spices

3
1999: Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter included in Best
American Short Stories
2003: The Lives of Strangers included in O'Henry
Prize Stories
2003: Pushcart Prize for The Lives of Strangers
2007: Distinguished Writer Award from the South
Asian Literary Association
2008: University of California at International
House Berkeley Alumna of the Year Award
2009: Cultural Jewel Award from the Indian Culture
Center, Houston
2011: Light of India Jurys Award for Journalism
and Literature
2015: Premio Scanno Award for Literature, Italy.

See also
List of Indian Americans
Indian English literature
List of Asian American writers

Further reading

Merlin, Lara. The Mistress of Spices. World Literature Today. University of Oklahoma. 1 January
1998.
Johnson, Sarah Anne. Writing outside the Lines.
Writer 117(3):20 Mar 2004.

9 External links
Ocial website
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni at the Internet Movie
Database

10 References
[1] http://www.encyclopedia.com/
article-1G2-3416300043/
divakaruni-chitra-banerjee-1956.html
[2] Davis, Roco G. (2003). Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
(1956 )". In Huang, Guiyou. Asian American Short
Story Writers: An A-to-Z Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 65. ISBN 0-313-32229-5. Retrieved 2
June 2010.
[3]
[4] Bhattacharyya, Madhumita (13 March 2005). Dreams
and dislocation. The Telegraph. Calcutta, India.
[5]
[6] http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/about/background

Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Chitra


Banerjee Divakaruni. In Literature: The Human
Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2006: 1544.
Aldana, Frederick Luis. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: The Unknown Errors of Our Lives.
World Literature Today. University of Oklahoma.
1 January 2002.
Softsky, Elizabeth. Cross Cultural Understanding
Spiced with the Indian Diaspora. Black Issues in
Higher Education 14 (15):26. 18 September 1997.
X.J. Kennedy et al. The Bedford Reader, 10th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007: 446.
Majithia, Sheetal. Of Foreigners and Fetishes: A
Reading of Recent South Asian American Fiction.
Samar 14: The South Asian American Generation
(Fall/Winter 2001): 5253. http://samarmagazine.
org/archive/articles/59
Newton, Pauline T. Transcultural Women of Later
Twentieth Century US American Literature. Ashgate
Publishing, 2005.

http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=
com_content&view=article&id=455590:
magic-and-reality&catid=94:section-ii&from_
page=search
Voices from the Gaps biography
SAWNET biography
Emory Biography
SAJA Biography
Zupani, Metka (July 2012). The power of storytelling: an interview with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Contemporary Womens Writing. Oxford
Journals. 6 (2): 85101. doi:10.1093/cww/vpr023.
Writing from Two Worlds. Nirali Magazine. October 2004.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Chitra Divakaruni at Salon
Chitra Divakaruni at Random House

10
Books by Chita Banerjee Divakaruni
Interview with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

REFERENCES

11
11.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses


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Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitra_Banerjee_Divakaruni?oldid=737730074 Contributors: Elysdir, David Gerard, Acsenray, Bender235, Mairi, Arcenciel, Snowolf, RJFJR, Ericl234, Rjwilmsi, Brianreading, Bgwhite, Wavelength,
Welsh, Ketsuekigata, JLaTondre, Gaudio, SmackBot, Classiclms, CRKingston, Yamaguchi , Sadads, BehemothCat, Jwy, Ohconfucius, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, John, JoeBot, Amalas, Drinibot, ShelfSkewed, Cydebot, Aristophanes68, Mereda, Placard20, Bakasuprman, Dsp13, Magioladitis, WilliamBrown, Jim Douglas, Rimibchatterjee, Skumarla, Johnpacklambert, Jeepday, Roland zh, BotMultichill, Amandeep.sohi, RainbowWerewolf, LarRan, ClueBot, Jeanenawhitney, Cmr08, MystBot, Addbot, MrOllie, Lightbot, Yobot,
Gongshow, Mellydoll, Xqbot, Armbrust, Riggedfallacy, INeverCry, Dying Fall, LucienBOT, Inscription, SpaceFlight89, BengaliHindu,
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