Bharati Mukherjee (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. She was the author of a number of novels and short story collections, as well as works of nonfiction.

Early life and education

Of Indian

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Bengali Brahmin Bengali Brahmins are the community of Hindu Brahmins, who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, currently comprising the Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh. The Bengali Brahmins, along wi ...

origin, Mukherjee was born in present-day

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

, West Bengal, India during British rule. She later travelled with her parents to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

after

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

, only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the Loreto School. She received her B.A. from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

in 1959 as a student of Loreto College, and subsequently earned her M.A. from

Maharaja Sayajirao University Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a public university on April 30, 1949 and was renamed after ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

in 1961. She next travelled to the United States to study at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. She received her M.F.A. from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...

in 1963 and her PhD in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature.

Career

After more than a decade living in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in Canada, Mukherjee and her husband,

Clark Blaise Clark Blaise, OC (born April 10, 1940) is a Canadian-American author. He was a professor of creative writing at York University, and a writer of short fiction. In 2010, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Early life and education ...

, returned to the United States. She wrote of the decision in "An Invisible Woman," published in a 1981 issue of '' Saturday Night''. Mukherjee and Blaise co-authored '' Days and Nights in Calcutta'' (1977). They also wrote the 1987 book, '' The Sorrow and the Terror'' regarding the

Air India Flight 182 Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport, Montreal–Heathrow Airport, London–Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi–Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumb ...

tragedy. In addition to writing many works of fiction and non-fiction, Mukherjee taught at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a Private school, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,700 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Scien ...

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

, and

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

before joining the faculty at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. In 1988 Mukherjee won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her collection ''The Middleman and Other Stories''. In a 1989 interview with Ameena Meer, Mukherjee stated that she considered herself an

American writer The Lists of American writers include: United States By ethnicity *List of African-American writers * List of Asian-American writers * List of Cuban-American writers * List of Egyptian-American writers * List of Italian-American women writers ...

, and not an Indian expatriate writer. Mukherjee died due to complications of

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects synovial joint, joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and h ...

and takotsubo cardiomyopathy on January 28, 2017, in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

at the age of 76. She was survived by her husband and son. Her other son, Bart, predeceased her in 2015.

Works

Novels

*'' The Tiger's Daughter'' (1971) *''

Wife A wife (: wives) is a woman in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until their marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgment; or until death, depending on the kind of marriage. On t ...

'' (1975) *''

Jasmine Jasmine (botanical name: ''Jasminum'', pronounced ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family of Oleaceae. It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are wid ...

'' (1989) *'' The Holder of the World'' (1993) *''

Leave It to Me Leave may refer to: * Permission (disambiguation) ** Permitted absence from work *** Leave of absence, a period of time that one is to be away from one's primary job while maintaining the status of employee *** Annual leave, allowance of time away ...

'' (1997) *'' Desirable Daughters'' (2002) *'' The Tree Bride'' (2004) *'' Miss New India'' (2011)

Short story collections

*''

Darkness Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina a ...

'' (1985) *'' The Middleman and Other Stories'' (1988)

Memoir

*'' Days and Nights in Calcutta'' (1977, with

)

Non-fiction

*'' The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy'' (1987, with Clark Blaise) * ''Political Culture and Leadership in India'' (1991) * ''Regionalism in Indian Perspective'' (1992)

Awards and honors

* 1988:

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Whittier College Whittier College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Whittier, California. It is a Hispanic-serving institution, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and, as of spring 2024, had 815 ...

in 2013.

Related novels

* ''

The Tortilla Curtain ''The Tortilla Curtain'' is a 1995 novel by American author T.C. Boyle. It is about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997, it was awarded the French Prix Médicis, Prix Médicis É ...

''– T. C. Boyle

References

External links

''India: In Word and Image''

Bharati Mukherjee entry
in ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

Interviews

Beatrice Interview 1997
*
conversation
with Bharati Mukherjee (February 2003)

Meer, Ameena: Bharati Mukherjee.
(Fall 1989)

Misc.

BBC World ServiceA Declaration of Independence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Bharati 1940 births 2017 deaths American Hindus 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Indian emigrants to the United States Bengali writers Writers from California Canadian women novelists University of California, Berkeley faculty American novelists of Indian descent American women novelists American women writers of Indian descent American people of Bengali descent Loreto College, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni American women short story writers Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Indian postmodern writers Bengali Hindus Canadian women short story writers American short story writers of Asian descent 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers American academics of Indian descent 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian women writers Writers from Kolkata 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian novelists Women writers from West Bengal Novelists from West Bengal Novelists from Iowa 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Deaths from cardiomyopathy Deaths from arthritis Indian scholars Indian writers National Book Critics Circle Award winners