Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Bio | Wiki
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American poet and author. Currently, she serves as the Betty & Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1996, Chitra’s short story collection titled Arranged Marriage won an American Book Award.
Two of her novels (The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart), and her short story titled The Word Love were adapted into films. Her Mistress of Spices appeared on the Orange Prize’s short-list. Currently, her Oleander Girl, Sister of My Heart, Palace of Illusions, and One Amazing Thing have all been optioned to be made into movies or TV serials.
Chitra’s works are largely set in India and the United States. She often focuses on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. The author writes for children and adults as well, Chitra has published novels in multiple genres such as magical realism, historical fiction, realistic fiction, myth, and fantasy.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Age
She was born on July 29, 1956, in Kolkata, India. Chitra is 65 years old.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Height
She is a woman of average stature. Chitra stands at the height of 5 ft 5 in ( Approx 1.65m).
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Family
She was born to her parents in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. However, Chitra has not shared information about her childhood life, her parents, or her siblings.
Chitra Banerjee Education
Chitra earned her B.A. in 1976 from the University of Calcutta. She went to the United States in the same year to attend Wright State University. She studied there and earned a master’s degree. Also, Chitra holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley which she received in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe was the subject of her doctoral dissertation).
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Husband
She is a married woman. Currently, Chitra lives in Houston with her husband, Murthy. The couple has two sons named Anand and Abhay. Chitra has used the names of her sons in her children’s novels. She put herself through graduate school by taking on odd jobs, working as a store clerk, a babysitter, a laboratory assistant at Wright State University, a bread slicer in a bakery, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley.
Chitra served graduate teaching assistant at U.C. Berkeley. She taught at Foothill College in Los Altos, California, as well as Diablo Valley College. Currently, Chitra lives and teaches in Texas as a McDavid professor of Creative Writing at the nationally ranked University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Maitri
She is the co-founder and former president of a helpline called Maitri founded in 1991 for South Asian women dealing with domestic abuse. Chitra serves on its advisory board and also on the advisory board of a similar organization called Daya based in Houston. In addition, she has served on the board of a non-profit organization called Pratham Houston working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian children for many years and is presently on their emeritus board.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Mistress of Spices | Sister of My Heart
In 2005, her novel titled The Mistress of Spices came out as a film of the same name. Paul Mayeda Berges directed the film with a script by Berges and his wife Gurinder Chadha. The Mistress of Spices starred Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott. Chitra’s novel titled Sister of my Heart appeared as a television series in Tamil made by Suhasini Maniratnam and aired in India, as Anbulla Snegithiye (Loving Friend). NR Pachisia und Dipankar Jojo Chaki secured the rights to a film adaption of The Palace of Illusions in 2008.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Arranged Marriage
Chitra’s story Clothes from the collection Arranged Marriage appeared as a play adapted by Peggy Shannon in 2004, 2010, and 2016 under the title Arranged Marriage. Also, the story was transformed into a dance-theater piece and brought on stage at the University of Massachusetts Amherst by director Roberta Uno of New World Theater.
She wrote the libretto for a chamber opera in 1023 for Houston Grand Opera, River of Light narrating the life of an Indian woman in Houston. It premiered with original compositions by Jack Perla in 2014 and aired again in by the opera company Festival Opera in 2015 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center directed by Tanya Kane-Parry.
Joe DiSabatino adopted Chitra’s The Palace of Illusions into a play titled Fire and Ice: Draupadi’s Story which was performed in India under his direction. A Bollywood movie titled Mahabharat was prepared in India based on The Palace of Illusions and stars Deepika Padukone as Draupadi. They scheduled the premiere for 2021. Chitra’s novel titled One Amazing Thing has been optioned by the Hollywood production company Gillen Group.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Black Candle | Leaving Yuba City
Her work has been published in more than 50 magazines such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. Chitra’s writing has been included in more than 50 anthologies such as the O. Henry Prize Stories, the Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Chitra’s fiction has been translated into 29 languages, including Turkish, Bengali, Indonesian, Hebrew, Dutch, and Japanese. Chitra started her writing career as a poet. Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City are her two latest volumes of poetry.
She has won several awards for her poems including a Barbara Deming Memorial Award, Gerbode Award, and an Allen Ginsberg Award. Chitra’s first collection of stories titled Arranged Marriage won a PEN Josephine Miles Award, an American Book Award, and a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Her major novels include Oleander Girl, Palace of Illusions, One Amazing Thing, Queen of Dreams, Sister of My Heart, The Mistress of Spices, and Before We Visit the Goddess.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Brotherhood
Also, Chitra wrote a young adult fantasy series called The Brotherhood of the Conch although most of her novels are written for adults. Unlike many of her adult novels, The Brotherhood takes place wholly in India and draws on the culture as well as the folklore of that region. The Conch Bearer is the first book of the series and won the nomination for the 2003 Bluebonnet Award.
The same book appeared in Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Choice Award Master List, Booklist Editor’s Choice, the Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, and the Rebecca Caudill Award Master List. The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming is the second book of the series which came out in 2005. The third and final book of the series is titled Shadowland and came out in 2009. Chitra’s novel titled The Palace of Illusions is a re-telling of the Indian epic The Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective. The novel became a national bestseller for over a year in India.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Poetry
– 1997 mr. aryan yadav
– 1990 The Reason for Nasturtiums, Berkeley (Berkeley Poets Workshop)
– 1991 Black Candle. Poems About Women from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, Corvallis (Calyx Books)
– 1997 Leaving Yuba City, St. Louis (Turtleback Books)
Anthologies
– 1993 Multitude: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers
– 1997 We Too Sing America
– 2004 California Uncovered: Stories for the 21st Century
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Books
– 1995 Arranged Marriage: Stories
– 1997 The Mistress of Spices
– 1999 Sister of My Heart
– 2001 The Unknown Errors of our Lives
– 2002 The Vine of Desire
– 2004 Queen of Dreams
– 2007 The Lives of Strangers
– 2008 The Palace of Illusions: A Novel
– 2010 One Amazing Thing
– 2013 Oleander Girl
– 2016 Before We Visit the Goddess
– 2019 The Forest of Enchantments
– 2021 The Last Queen
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Quotes
– “Each day has a color, a smell.”
– “Expectations are like hidden rocks in your path—all they do is trip you up.”
– “The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness.”
– “Aren’t we all pawns in the hands of time, the greatest player of them all?”
– “She who sows vengeance must reap its bloody fruit.”
– “Wisdom that isn’t distilled in our own crucible can’t help us.”
– “Everytime i have turned the page he re-enters my life as awkward as postscript”
– “time is the great eraser, both of sorrow and of joy.”
– “wait for a man to avenge your honor, and you’ll wait forever.”
– “Fenugreek, Tuesday’s spice, when the air is green like mosses after rain.”
– “I guess there’s a lot we hope for that never happens.”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Net Worth
She is an Indian-American poet and author with an estimated net worth of $4,593,981
How Old Is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra is 65 years old. She was born on July 29, 1956, in Kolkata, India.
Is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Married
Yes. Currently, Chitra lives in Houston with her husband, Murthy. The couple has two sons named Anand and Abhay. Chitra has used the names of her sons in her children’s novels.
Who Is Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra is an Indian-American poet and author. Currently, she serves as the Betty & Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.