Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni (1956) is an Indian-American
author, poet, and professor of English at The University
of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Divakaruni was
born in Kolkata, India. She received her B.A. from the
University of Calcutta in 1976. That same year, she
went to the United States to attend Wright State
University where she received her Master's degree. She
received her Ph.D. from the University of California,
Berkeley in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe was the subject
of her doctoral dissertation).
Career
She has taught at Foothill College
in Los Altos, California. She has also worked as a
babysitter, a store clerk, a bread slicer, a dining
hall attendant, and in laboratories. She now lives in
Texas, where she teaches at The University of Houston
Creative Writing Program.
Divakaruni is also a co-founder and
former president of a helpline for South Asian women
who are dealing with various forms of abuse from
others. The organization, Maitri, was founded
in 1991.
Works
Fiction
Divakaruni's work has been
published in over 50 magazines, including The Atlantic
Monthly, Harper's and The New Yorker and her writing
has been included in over 30 anthologies.
While many of her novels are
written for adults, she has also written the first two
books in a juvenile fantasy series called The
Brotherhood of the Conch which, like many of her adult
novels, takes place in India (as well as other parts
of Asia and the Middle East) and draws on the culture
and folklore of that region.
Her next work will be a re-telling
of the Indian epic, The Mahabharata told from
the female characters' perspective.
Film and
television
Her novel, The Mistress of
Spices, was released as the film The Mistress
of Spices in 2005. It is directed by Paul Mayeda
Berges, with a script by Berges and his wife, Gurinder
Chadha. The film stars Aishwarya Rai.
In addition, her novel Sister of
my Heart was made into a television series in
Tamil and aired in India, as Anbulla Snegithiye
(Loving Friend).
Bibliography
-
Fiction
-
The
Mirror of fire and Dreaming Book Two of the
Brotherhood of the Conch (2005)
-
Queen
of Dreams (novel) (2004)
-
The
Conch Bearer (novel) Book One of the Brotherhood
of the Conch (2003)
-
Neela:
Victory Song (novel) (2002)
-
The
Vine of Desire (novel) (2002)
-
The
Unknown Errors of our Lives (novel) (2001)
-
Sister
of My Heart (novel) (1999)
-
Leaving
Yuba City (novel) (1997)
-
The
Mistress of Spices (1997)
-
Arranged
Marriage (novel) (1995)
-
Black
Candle (novel) (1991)
-
The
Reason for Nasturiums (novel) (1990)
-
Dark
Like the River (novel) (1987)
·
Awards
-
1997:
The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize and the Pushcart
Prize for Leaving Yuba City: New and Selected
Poems.
-
1997:
Los Angeles Times Best Book for Mistress of
Spices.
-
1995:
The American Book Award for Arranged Marriage:
Stories.
-
PEN
Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction for Arranged Marriage: Stories.
-
Bay
Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction for Arranged
Marriage: Stories.
-
PEN
Oakland Award.
-
2000
National Book Award judge.
