Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Encyclopedia
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (born Chitralekha Banerjee, 1956 - ) is an Indian-American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program
.
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
) were adapted into films. Mistress of Spices
was short-listed for the Orange Prize.
Divakaruni's works are largely set in India
and the United States
, and often focus on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. She writes for children as well as adults and has published novels in multiple genres, including realistic fiction, historical fiction
, magical realism, and fantasy
.
(Calcutta), 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 a master's degree. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe
was the subject of her doctoral dissertation).
, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley. She taught at Foothill College
in Los Altos
, California
and Diablo Valley College
. She now lives in Texas
, where she teaches at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
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 similar organization in Houston, Daya. She also serves on the Houston board of Pratham
, a non-profit organization working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian children.
and The New Yorker
and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies including the Best American Short Stories
, the O. Henry Prize Stories
, and the Pushcart Prize
anthology. Her fiction has been translated into 20 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian and Japanese.
Divakaruni began her writing career as a poet. Her two latest volumes of poetry are Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City. She won several awards for her poems, such as a Gerbode Award, a Barbara Deming Memorial Award and an Allen Ginsberg Award.
Divakaruni's first collection of stories Arranged Marriage, which won an American Book Award
, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, greatly increased her visibility. Her major novels include The Mistress of Spices
, Sister of My Heart
and Queen of Dreams. Although the greater part of her novels are written for adults, she has also written a young adult fantasy series called The Brotherhood of the Conch which, unlike many of her adult novels, takes place wholly in India and draws on the culture and folklore of that region. The first book of the series, The Conch Bearer was nominated for the 2003 Bluebonnet Award. The third and final book of the series, Shadowland, was published in 2009.
Divakaruni's latest novel for adults, The Palace of Illusions, is a re-telling of the Indian epic
, The Mahabharata
from a female character's perspective.
, was released as a film of the same name
in 2005. It was directed by Paul Mayeda Berges
, with a script by Berges and his wife, Gurinder Chadha
. The film starred Aishwarya Rai
and Dylan McDermott
.
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).
University of Houston Creative Writing Program
The University of Houston Creative Writing program is a graduate fiction and poetry program located in Houston, Texas. It was rated second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in its first annual ranking of writing programs in 1997. It rated 26th in the nation in Poets & Writers and its PhD...
.
Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage, won an American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
in 1995, and two of her novels (The Mistress of Spices
Mistress of Spices
The Mistress of Spices, , set in contemporary Oakland, California, is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.-Plot summary:...
and Sister of My Heart
Sister of My Heart (novel)
Sister of My Heart is a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. First published in 1999, this novel was followed in 2002 by a sequel The Vine of Desire....
) were adapted into films. Mistress of Spices
Mistress of Spices
The Mistress of Spices, , set in contemporary Oakland, California, is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.-Plot summary:...
was short-listed for the Orange Prize.
Divakaruni's works are largely set in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and often focus on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. She writes for children as well as adults and has published novels in multiple genres, including realistic fiction, historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
, magical realism, and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
.
Background
Chitralekha Banerjee Divakaruni was born in KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(Calcutta), India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
in 1976. That same year, she went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to attend Wright State University
Wright State University
Wright State University is a comprehensive public university with strong doctoral, research, and undergraduate programs, rated among the 260 Best National Universities listed in the annual "America's Best Colleges" rankings by U.S. News and World Report. Wright State is located in Fairborn, Ohio,...
where she received a master's degree. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
was the subject of her doctoral dissertation).
Career
Divakaruni put herself through graduate school by taking on odd jobs, working as a babysitter, a store clerk, a bread slicer in a bakery, a laboratory assistant at Wright State UniversityWright State University
Wright State University is a comprehensive public university with strong doctoral, research, and undergraduate programs, rated among the 260 Best National Universities listed in the annual "America's Best Colleges" rankings by U.S. News and World Report. Wright State is located in Fairborn, Ohio,...
, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley. She taught at Foothill College
Foothill College
Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:...
in Los Altos
Los Altos
Los Altos is the name of several places, including:* the former state of Los Altos, Central America, now divided between Guatemala and Mexico.* the city of Los Altos, California, in the United States....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Diablo Valley College
Diablo Valley College
Diablo Valley College is a two-year community college in Pleasant Hill in Contra Costa County, California.DVC is one of three publicly supported two-year community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District , and was first opened in 1949...
. She now lives in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where she teaches at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
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 similar organization in Houston, Daya. She also serves on the Houston board of Pratham
Pratham
Pratham is a non-governmental organisation that works towards the provision of quality education to the underprivileged children in India. Established in Mumbai in 1994 to provide pre-school education to children in slums, it now has activities in 21 states of India and has supporting chapters in...
, a non-profit organization working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian children.
Fiction and Poetry
Divakaruni's work has been published in over 50 magazines, including The Atlantic MonthlyThe Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies including the Best American Short Stories
Best American Short Stories
The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
, the O. Henry Prize Stories
O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
, and the Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
anthology. Her fiction has been translated into 20 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian and Japanese.
Divakaruni began her writing career as a poet. Her two latest volumes of poetry are Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City. She won several awards for her poems, such as a Gerbode Award, a Barbara Deming Memorial Award and an Allen Ginsberg Award.
Divakaruni's first collection of stories Arranged Marriage, which won an American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, greatly increased her visibility. Her major novels include The Mistress of Spices
Mistress of Spices
The Mistress of Spices, , set in contemporary Oakland, California, is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.-Plot summary:...
, Sister of My Heart
Sister of My Heart (novel)
Sister of My Heart is a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. First published in 1999, this novel was followed in 2002 by a sequel The Vine of Desire....
and Queen of Dreams. Although the greater part of her novels are written for adults, she has also written a young adult fantasy series called The Brotherhood of the Conch which, unlike many of her adult novels, takes place wholly in India and draws on the culture and folklore of that region. The first book of the series, The Conch Bearer was nominated for the 2003 Bluebonnet Award. The third and final book of the series, Shadowland, was published in 2009.
Divakaruni's latest novel for adults, The Palace of Illusions, is a re-telling of the Indian epic
Indian epic poetry
Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya . The Ramayana and Mahabharata, originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into many other Indian languages, are some of the oldest surviving epic poems on earth and form part of...
, The Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
from a female character's perspective.
Film and television
Her novel, The Mistress of SpicesMistress of Spices
The Mistress of Spices, , set in contemporary Oakland, California, is a novel by Indian American writer and University of Houston Creative Writing Program professor Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.-Plot summary:...
, was released as a film of the same name
The Mistress of Spices (film)
The Mistress of Spices is a film by Paul Mayeda Berges, with a screenplay by Gurinder Chadha and Berges. It is based upon the novel The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The film stars Aishwarya Rai...
in 2005. It was directed by Paul Mayeda Berges
Paul Mayeda Berges
Paul Mayeda Berges is an American screenwriter and director.Of Japanese ancestry, Berges graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1990. He has collaborated with his wife, British-Indian director Gurinder Chadha, on a number of films...
, with a script by Berges and his wife, Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging...
. The film starred Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994...
and Dylan McDermott
Dylan McDermott
Mark Anthony McDermott , better known by his professional name of Dylan McDermott, is an American actor, known for his role as lawyer and law firm head Bobby Donnell on the television legal drama The Practice and his role in the series Dark Blue as Lt. Carter Shaw. McDermott currently stars in FX...
.
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).
Personal life
Divakaruni lives in Houston with her husband Murthy, her two sons Anand and Abhay (whose names she has used in her children’s novels) and Juno, the family dog.Quote
"The Art of dissolving boundaries is what living is all about." http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0597/divakaruni/essay.htmlAwards
- 1995: The American Book AwardAmerican Book AwardThe American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
for Arranged Marriage: Stories - 1997: The Allen GinsbergAllen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
Poetry Prize and the Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
for poems in Leaving Yuba City: New and Selected Poems - 1997: Mistress of Spices shortlisted for The Orange Prize
- 1997: Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Best Books of 1997 for Mistress of Spices - 1998: Seattle Times Best Paperbacks of 1998 for Mistress of Spices
- 1999: "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter" included in Best American Short StoriesBest American Short StoriesThe Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
- 2003: "The Lives of Strangers" included in O'Henry Prize Stories
- 2003: Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
for "The Lives of Strangers" - 2007: Distinguished Writer Award from the South Asian Literary Association
- 2008: University of California at Berkeley International House Alumna of the Year Award
- 2009: Cultural Jewel Award from the Indian Culture Center, Houston
- PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary AwardPEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary AwardAccording to its website, PEN Oakland was founded in 1989 by Ishmael Reed, who came up with the idea, and co-founders Floyd Salas, Reginald Lockett and Claire Ortalda, in order to “promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the...
for Arranged Marriage: Stories - Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction for Arranged Marriage: Stories
- 2011: Light of India Jury's Award for Journalism and Literature
See also
- List of Indian Americans
- Indian English literatureIndian English literatureIndian English literature refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V.S...
- List of Asian American writers
Further reading
- Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. "Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni." In Literature: The Human Experience, 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006: 1544.
- Aldana, Frederick Luis. "Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: The Unknown Errors of Our Lives." World Literature Today. University of Oklahoma. 1 Jan 2002.
- Softsky, Elizabeth. "Cross Cultural Understanding Spiced with the Indian Diaspora." Black Issues in Higher Education 14 (15):26. 18 Sep 1997.
- X.J. Kennedy et al. The Bedford Reader, 10th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007: 446.
- Newton, Pauline T. Transcultural Women of Later Twentieth Century U.S. American Literature. Ashgate Publishing, 2005.
- Merlin, Lara. "The Mistress of Spices." World Literature Today. University of Oklahoma. 1 Jan 1998.
- Johnson, Sarah Anne. "Writing outside the Lines." Writer 117(3):20 Mar 2004.
Biographies
Miscellaneous
- Official Website
- Writing from Two Worlds, Nirali Magazine, October 2004.
- Chitra Divakaruni at Salon
- Chitra Divakaruni at Random House
- Poem Excerpts from her book, "Leaving Yuba City."
- Latest Interview at pinkvox Inconversation with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni