Anita Desai

Anita Desai is a critically-lauded 20th-century writer, and her novels on the experiences and inner lives of Indian men and women are known for their compassion, eloquence, and lucid prose. Having come of age when India achieved independence in 1947, Desai weaves politics and gender issues into her works.

Desai was born in Mussoorie, India, and spent her childhood in Delhi. Her parents met in Germany when her father was studying there, and they moved back to his home of India in the 1920s. Desai grew up speaking German, Bengali, Hindu, and Urdu; she only learned English when she went to a mission school. She then attended school at Queen Mary’s School in Delhi and received a B.A. in English literature from Miranda House at the University of Delhi.

In 1958, Anita married Ashwin Desai, a business executive, and they had four children (Kiran Desai, one of her daughters, won the Man Booker Prize in 2006).

Desai published her first short story when she was only twenty years old. Her first novel was Cry, the Peacock (1963). Her other novels include: Voices in the City (1965), Bye-Bye, Blackbird (1971), Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975), Fire on the Mountain (1977), Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984), Baumgartner’s Bombay (1988), and The Zigzag Way (2004). In addition to novels, she has written books for children, numerous short stories that have been collected into anthologies, and essays.

Desai has received many awards, including the Royal Society of Literature Winifred Holtby Prize (1978), the Sahitya Akademi of India Award (1979), the Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction (1982), the National Academy of Letters Award, and three nominations for the Booker Prize. She has taught at Cambridge, Oxford, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and MIT; she is also a member of the Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Desai and her family currently live in the United States.