An Inspiring Writer, Poet and Novelist, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian born American novelist, poet, and Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. She publishes books in a variety of genres, including realistic fiction, historical fiction, magical realism, myth, and fantasy, and she writes both for children and adults. She was created in India’s Calcutta.

In 1976, she graduated with a B.A. from the University of Calcutta. She travelled to the United States the same year to enrol at Wright State University, where she graduated with a master’s degree. From the University of California, Berkeley, she earned a PhD in English in 1985.

She worked as a babysitter, a retail clerk, a bread slicer at a bakery, a laboratory assistant at Wright State University, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley to pay her way through graduate school. At U.C. At Berkeley, she worked as a graduate teaching assistant. At Foothill College and Diablo Valley College in California, she was a professor.

Arranged Marriage, which received the American Book Award, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, and the PEN Josephine Miles Award for fiction in 1994, is one of her story collections. Another is The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (2001). The best-selling Mistress of Spices (1997), Sister of My Heart (1999) and its sequel, The Vine of Desire (2002), Queen of Dreams (2003), The Palace of Illusions (2008), One Amazing Thing (2009), and Oleander Girl are just a few of the numerous books she has written (2013). Her writing has been extensively distributed, translated, and collected.

The South Asian Literary Association’s Distinguished Author Award, the C.Y. Lee Creative Writing Award, PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, International House Alumna of the Year from the University of California-Berkeley, the Cultural Jewel Award from the Indian Culture Center in Houston, and the Light of India Award from the Times of India are just a few of the many accolades and awards she has received.