Why Is She Famous?
Indian novelist and short story writer, Anita Desai is specially noted
for her insightful depiction of the inner life of the female characters
in her writings. In many of her works Anita Desai has highlighted the
tensions among the family members and estrangement of middle-class
women. Anita Desai marked her debut as a novelist in the year 1963 with
the Peacock. It was followed by Voices of the City; Fire on the Mountain
(set in Kasuli, a hill station), "In Clear Light of Day, Where
Shall We Go This Summer, and The Zigzag Way. Anita Desai's works were
short listed for the Booker prize 3 times.
Anita Desai is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London
and she has been a member of the Advisory Board for English at the
National Academy of Letters in Delhi and a Member of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. She has been a Visiting Fellow at Girton
College, Cambridge, England and has taught writing at Smith College.
Anita Desai has been the Purington Professor of English at Mount Holyoke
College in the United States.
Background
Anita Desai was born in 1937, Mussoorie, India. Her father was a
Bengali businessman whereas her mother was of German origin. Anita Desai
began to write at the age of seven. When she was just 9 years old she
published her first story. Anita Desai was educated in Delhi at Queen
Mary's Higher Secondary School and Miranda House, Delhi University (B.A.
in English literature). She married Ashvin Desai, a businessman.
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