Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2008)

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , maiden name: Chitralekha Banerjee (born July 29, 1956 in Calcutta , India) is an Indian-American writer and professor of creative writing at the University of Houston . She lives in Houston , USA.

Life

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni grew up in Calcutta , India, and lived there until she was 20 years old. After completing her bachelor's degree at the University of Calcutta in 1976 , she moved to Wright State University in the USA to complete a master's degree there. A doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in English Literature followed, which she finished in 1985. The subject of her doctoral thesis was the English poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe . During her PhD, she also taught as an assistant at the University of California. She then taught at Foothill College in Los Altos , California and at Diablo Valley College . She holds the Betty and Gene McDavid Professorship at the University of Houston in Texas (USA) in the department of creative writing.

In 1991, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni co-founded the Maitri organization, which operates an emergency hotline for South Asian women who experience domestic violence . She also chaired the organization for a number of years. She is still on the board, as well as on the board of a similar organization in Houston called Daya. In addition, she served for many years on the board of directors of Pratham Houston, a non-governmental organization dedicated to literacy for disadvantaged Indian children. After retiring from active association work, she is an honorary member of the organization.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has been married to S. Murthy Divakaruni since June 29, 1979. The couple have two sons, Anand and Abhay (whose names she used in her children's books).

plant

Divakaruni's works are predominantly set in India and the United States of America. They are about the experiences of immigrants from the South Asian region . Her works move in a range of different genres , from realistic and historical novels to magical realism , fantasy novels and children's books.

Her collection of short stories, Arranged Marriage (The Scent of Mango Blossoms) won the 1995 American Book Award . Two of her novels, The Guardian of Spices and The Princess in the Snake Palace , as well as her short story The Word Love were filmed. The guardian of spices was shortlisted for the Orange Prize .

Prose and poetry

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's works have been published in over 50 magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker . In addition, it is represented in over 50 anthologies, including the anthologies Best American Short Stories , O. Henry Prize Stories and the publication for the Pushcart Prize . Her prose works have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Indonesian, Bengali, Turkish and Japanese.

Divakaruni started her writing career as a poet. Her most recently published volumes of poetry are Black Candle and Leaving Yuba City . She has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the Gerbode Award, the Barbara Deming Memorial Award, and the Allen Ginsberg Award. The first collection of short stories, Arranged Marriage , which won the American Book Award , the PEN Josephine Miles Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, also made her better known as a prose writer.

The majority of her novels are aimed at adult audiences, but with the Anand series , she has also written a fantasy series for teenagers and young adults that - unlike most of her adult novels - is entirely set in India and is itself concerned with the local culture and folklore. The first volume in the series, Anand and the Secret of Silbertal ( The Conch Bearer ), was nominated for the 2003 Bluebonnet Award. He was also featured on the Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year, Booklist Editor's Choice, Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award Master List, and the Rebecca Caudill Award Master List.

The Roman Palace of Hope had the status of a national bestseller in India for over a year. It is a retelling of the Indian epic Mahabharata from Draupadi's perspective. The Indiatimes added the book to their list of 12 should-read books by Indian authors.

Adaptations for film, TV, theater and opera

Divakaruni's novel The Guardian of Spices was released as a film of the same name in 2005, directed by Paul Mayeda Berges. Berges wrote the screenplay with his wife, Gurinder Chadha . The main roles were Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott to see. The novel The Princess in the Snake Palace was reworked by Suhasini Mani Ratnam into a television series in Tamil and broadcast in India under the title Anbulla Snegidheiye (Loving Girlfriend) . In 2018, producers NR Pachisia and Dipankar Jojo Chaki secured the rights to the film adaptation of Palace of Hope .

The story Clothes from Mango Blossom Scent was reworked into the play Arranged Marriage and performed by the Sacramento Theater Company in 2010. In addition, the narrative was translated into a dance theater piece and performed on stage under the direction of Roberta Uno of the New World Theater at the University of Massachusetts Amherst .

In 2013 Divakaruni wrote the libretto for a chamber opera for the Houston Grand Opera entitled River of Light , which deals with the life of an Indian woman in Houston. Jack Perla was responsible for the compositions. The world premiere took place in 2014. In addition, it was re-performed in 2015 by the independent opera company Festival Opera , directed by Tanya Kane-Parry, at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

Palace of Hope was rewritten into a play called Fire and Ice: Draupadi's Story by Joe DiSabatino and performed under his direction in India.

The Hollywood production company Gillen Group has secured the film rights to the novel One Amazing Thing .

Awards

• 1988: The Hackney Literary Award from Birmingham-Southern College , Alabama
• 1989: Barbara Deming Memorial Award
• 1990: Editor's Choice Award from the literary magazine Cream City Review
• 1990, 1994: Santa Clara Arts Council Award
• 1992: Gerbode Foundation Award for Leaving Yuba City
• 1992: Special mention at the Paterson Poetry Prize for Black Candle
• 1987: William L. Crawford Fantasy Award
• 1994: Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize for poems from Leaving Yuba City and Pushcart Prize for The Walk from Leaving Yuba City
• 1995: CY Lee Creative Writing Award
• 1996: American Book Award for Arranged Marriage: Stories
• 1995: Josephine Miles Literary Award / PEN Oakland for The Scent of Mango Blossoms
• 1995: Bay Area Book Reviewers Award in the Fiction Category for The Scent of Mango Blossoms
• 1997: Nomination for the Orange Prize for Guardian of Spices
• 1997: Listed in Best Books of 1997 the Los Angeles Times for Mistress of Spices
• 1998: Listed in the Seattle Times Best Paperbacks of 1998 for Guardian of Spices
• 1999: Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter , included in the anthology The Best American Short Stories
• 2003: The Lives of Strangers , included in the O'Henry Prize Stories anthology
• 2003: Pushcart Prize for The Lives of Strangers
• 2007: Distinguished Writer Award from the South Asian Literary Association
• 2008: Alumna of the Year Award from the University of California at the International House Berkeley
• 2009: Cultural Jewel Award from the Indian Culture Center, Houston
• 2011: Light of India, Jury Award for Journalism and Literature
• 2012: Outstanding Alumna from Wright State University
• 2015: Premio Scanno for Literature, Italy

Works

Novels

• Palace of Hope , trans. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 2008. (The Palace of Illusions) ISBN 978-3-453-29026-6 , 2009 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-35446-3
• Queen of dreams , trans. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 2005. (Queen of Dreams) ISBN 978-3-453-35024-3 , 2006 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-35132-5
• Who knows the longing , over. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 2002. (The Vine of Desire) ISBN 978-3-8284-0069-6 , 2004 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-87377-3
• Bengali Stars , transl. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 2001. (The Unknown Errors of our Lives) ISBN 978-3-8284-0056-6 , 2002 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-21259-6
• The princess in the snake palace , trans. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 1999. (Sister of My Heart) ISBN 978-3-8284-0031-3 , 2000 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-17710-9
• The guardian of spices , trans. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Diana Verlag) 1997. (The Mistress of Spices) ISBN 978-3-453-12916-0 , 2005 as paperback ISBN 978-3-453-15014-0

• The Lives of Strangers (2007)
• One Amazing Thing (2010)
• Oleander Girl (2013)
• Before We Visit the Goddess (2016)
• The Forest of Enchantments , HarperCollins India, Uttar Pradesh 2019. ISBN 978-93-5302598-4 .

stories

• The scent of the mango blossoms , over. v. Angelika Naujokat, Munich (Heyne) 1998. (Arranged Marriage: Stories) ISBN 978-3-453-14398-2 , 1999 as paperback (Diana-Verlag) ISBN 978-3-453-16047-7

Children's books

• Neela: Victory Song , Middleton (American Girl Publishing) 2002. ISBN 978-1-58485-597-2
• Grandma and the Great Gourd. A Bengali Folktale , illustrated by Susy Pilgrim Waters, (Roaring Brook Press) 2013. ISBN 978-1-59643-378-6

Anand series

• Volume 1: Anand and the secret of the Silbertal , trans. v. Gerald Jung et al. Katharina Orgaß, London (Bloomsbury) 2007. (The Conch Bearer) ISBN 978-3-8270-5006-9 , 2010 as paperback ISBN 978-3-8270-5401-2
• Volume 2: Anand and the magic mirror , trans. v. Christiane Schott-Hagedorn, London (Bloomsbury) 2005. (The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming) ISBN 978-3-8270-5007-6 , 2010 as paperback ISBN 978-3-8270-5402-9
• Volume 3: Anand im Schattenland , trans. v. Christiane Schott-Hagedorn, London (Bloomsbury) 2010. (Shadowland) ISBN 978-3-8270-5008-3

Volumes of poetry

• Dark like the river , 1987.
• The Reason for Nasturtiums , Berkeley (Berkeley Poets Workshop) 1990. ISBN 978-0-917658-28-0
• Black candle. Poems About Women from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh , Corvallis (Calyx Books) 1991. ISBN 978-0-934971-74-4
• Leaving Yuba City , St. Louis (Turtleback Books) 1997. ISBN 978-1-4177-1097-3

Anthologies

• Multitude: Cross Cultural Readings for Writers . Mcgraw-Hill College, New York City 1993, 2nd ed. 1996. ISBN 978-0-07-017086-5
• We, Too, Sing America: A Reader for Writers . Mcgraw-Hill Humanities, New York City 1997. ISBN 978-0-07-017084-1
• California Uncovered: Stories for the 21st Century , together with. William E. Justice. Heyday Books, Berkeley 2004. ISBN 978-1-890771-97-3

See also

Portal: Literature  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of literature

• List of Indian writers
• List of American writers

Web links

• Website of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni in the Internet Movie Database (English)

further reading

• Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni , in Literature: The Human Experience , 12th ed., Bedford / St. Martin's, New York 2015. ISBN 978-1-4576-9993-1
• Aldana, Frederick Luis: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: The Unknown Errors of Our Lives, in: World Literature Today . University of Oklahoma. January 1, 2002.
• Cheung, King-Kok (Ed.): Words matter conversations with Asian American writers . Los Angeles (University of Hawaii Press in association with UCLA Asian American Studies Center) 2000. ISBN 978-0-8248-2134-0
• Softsky, Elizabeth: Cross Cultural Understanding Spiced with the Indian Diaspora , in: Black Issues in Higher Education . 14 (15): 26. September 18, 1997.
• XJ Kennedy et al: The Bedford Reader , 13th ed. Bedford / St. Martin's, New York 2016. ISBN 978-1-319-03051-3
• Sheetal Majithia: Of Foreigners and Fetishes: A Reading of Recent South Asian American Fiction. In: samarmagazine.org. 2001, accessed January 31, 2019 . 
• Newton, Pauline T .: Transcultural Women of Late Twentieth-Century US American Literature: First-Generation Migrants from Islands and Peninsulas . Ashgate Publishing, Farnham 2005. ISBN 978-0-7546-5212-0
• Merlin, Lara: The Mistress of Spices , in World Literature Today . University of Oklahoma. January 1, 1998.
• Johnson, Sarah Anne: Writing outside the Lines , in: Writer 117 (3): 20. March 2004.
• Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath: Asian American Novelists. A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook . Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-30911-3

Individual evidence

1. ^ Staff profile on the University of Houston website
2. ↑ Rocío G. Davis et al. Guiyou Huang: Asian American Short Story Writers: An A-to-Z Guide . Greenwood Press, Westport, CT 2003, ISBN 978-0-313-32229-7 , pp. 65 (English, google.de [accessed on February 23, 2019]). Available from Google Books under the aforementioned link.
3. ↑ Chitralekha Divakaruni: For danger is in words: changing attitudes to language in the plays of Christopher Marlowe. In: OskiCat - UC Berkeley Library Catalog. December 1, 1984. Retrieved February 23, 2019 . 
4. ↑ To the story of Maitri on the homepage of the emergency hotline
5. ↑ On the founding history of Daya
6. ↑ Dr. Gunjan Agarwal and Gunjan Kapil: The Representation of Woman in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Doors, Affair , and Meeting Mrinal . In: Dr. Vishwanath Bite (Ed.): The Criterion . tape 5 , no. 6 , December 2014, ISSN  0976-8165 , p. 77 (English). E-paper as pdf
7. ↑ Curriculum vitae on the author's website
8. ↑ Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. (No longer available online.) In: indiareads.com. February 5, 2011, archived from the original on February 15, 2011 ; accessed on March 1, 2019 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Madhumita Bhattacharyya: Dreams and Dislocation. In: The Telegraph, Calcutta (India). March 13, 2005, accessed March 1, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Dr. Archana Kumari: Demystification of Daraupadi through Rewriting in Chitra Banerjee Divakarunis The Palace of Illusions. (PDF) In: Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL). July 1, 2016, pp. 836–842 , accessed on February 28, 2019 (English). 
11. ↑ 12 Books By Indian Authors You Need To Read Now
12. ↑ Film adaptation of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel on Drapaudi in the works. In: scroll.in. September 26, 2018, accessed February 28, 2019 . 
13. ^ Pramod Kulkarni: Houston Grand Opera's "River of Light" to Feature Libretto by Chitra Divakaruni. In: indoamerican-news.com. December 12, 2013, accessed February 28, 2019 . 
14. ↑ inprint staff: Writers, Opera, and Chitra Divakaruni's River of Light. In: anopenbookblog.org. March 21, 2014, accessed February 28, 2019 . 
15. ↑ Rebecca Wishnia: River of Light Shines at Festival Opera. In: San Francisco Classical Voice - sfcv.org. November 16, 2015, accessed February 7, 2020 . 
16. ^ Previous Winners of the American Book Award. In: beforecolumbusfoundation.com. Retrieved February 7, 2020 . 
17. ↑ Divakaruni's essay on the work on the mythological figure Sita: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: From Darkness into Light. Why she speaks to us more than ever this Diwali. In: indianexpress.com. November 4, 2018, accessed March 3, 2019 .