Minal Hajratwala (born 1971) is a writer, performer, poet, and

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n descent. She was born in 1971 in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, US, and was raised in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and suburban

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. She is a graduate of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

She is the author of ''Leaving India: My Family's Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), which

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

has called "incomparable," and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' has characterized as "searingly honest." She researched and wrote the book during a seven-year period, traveling the world to interview more than 75 members of her extended family. Hajratwala's creative work has appeared in journals, anthologies, and theater spaces and has received recognition and support from the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by actor Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and compo ...

, the Jon Sims Center for the Arts, the SerpentSource Foundation, and the

Hedgebrook Hedgebrook is a rural retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Washington, founded in 1988. Hedgebrook's artist-in-residence program accepts up to 80 writers each year, who spend two to four weeks in residence working on their diverse writi ...

writing retreat for women, where she serves on the Alumnae Leadership Council. For

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

in 1999, the

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture"About"
Asian Art Museum website. ...

commissioned her one-woman show, "Avatars: Gods for a New Millennium." She previously worked as a journalist at the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'' for eight years, was a board member of the

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to coverage of LGBTQ+ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, educators, ...

, and was a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's Graduate School of Journalism in 2000-01. In June 2011 Hajratwala and Tom MacMaster, creator of

Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari ''A Gay Girl in Damascus'' (February 2011 - June 2011) was a blog purportedly authored by Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari. Omari was, in fact, a hoax persona created by the American citizen and then-student of the University of Edinburgh, Thomas ...

, engaged in an online dispute over the posting of MacMaster's manuscript.Mackey, Robert.
While Posing as a Syrian Lesbian, Male Blogger Tried to Get a Book Deal
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. June 22, 2011. Retrieved on July 6, 2011. Hajratwala is the founder of Unicorn Club, "a magical sanctuary where authors of color (and allies who really mean it!) finish our gorgeous, urgently needed books."

Works

*2009 ''Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents'' *2010 '' Out! Stories from The New Queer India'' (editor) *2015 ''Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment''

References

External links

Official websiteUnicorn Club"The Heart Breaks"
by Minal Hajratwala, published in ''Lion's Roar'' (July 27, 2021)
Interview
with Public Radio International's ''The World'' (March 31, 2009) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hajratwala, Minal Living people Lambda Literary Award winners American women writers of Indian descent American women poets Stanford University alumni American LGBTQ rights activists American people of Gujarati descent 1971 births The Mercury News people American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers