Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (born Chitralekha Banerjee, 1956) is an Indian-born 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 1996. Two of her novels ('' The Mistress of Spices'' and '' Sister of My Heart''), as well as a short story (''The Word Love)'' were adapted into films.

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, myth and fantasy.

Early life and education

Divakaruni was born in Calcutta, India. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1976. In the same year, she went to the United States to attend Wright State University, where she received a master's degree. She received a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe 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 University, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley. She was a graduate teaching assistant at U.C. Berkeley. She taught in California at Foothill College and Diablo Valley College. She now lives and teaches in Texas, where she is the McDavid Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

Divakaruni is the co-founder and former president of Maitri, a helpline founded in 1991 in San Francisco for South Asian women dealing with domestic abuse. Divakaruni is on its advisory board and on the advisory board of Daya, a similar service in Houston. She has served on the board of Pratham Houston, an organisation working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian children, and is on their emeritus board.

Works

Fiction and poetry

Divakaruni began her writing career as a poet. Her volumes of poetry include ''Black Candle'' and ''Leaving Yuba City''.

Her first collection of stories ''Arranged Marriage'' won an American Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Her major novels include ''The Mistress of Spices'', '' Sister of My Heart'', ''Queen of Dreams'', ''One Amazing Thing'', '' Palace of Illusions'', ''Oleander Girl'' and ''Before We Visit the Goddess''. She has also written a young adult fantasy series called ''The Brotherhood of the Conch'' which is located 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 second book of the series, ''The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming'' came out in 2005 and the third and final book of the series, ''Shadowland'', was published in 2009.

Divakaruni's novel ''The Palace of Illusions'', was a national best-seller for over a year in India and is a re-telling of the Indian epic ''The Mahabharata'' from Draupadi's perspective.

Divakaruni's work has been published in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''The New Yorker'', and her writing has been included in anthologies including the '' Best American Short Stories'', the ''O. Henry Prize Stories'', and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Her fiction has been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian, Bengali, Turkish and Japanese.

Film, television, theatre and opera

Divakaruni's novel ''The Mistress of Spices'' was released as a film of the same name in 2005. It was directed by Paul Mayeda Berges

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