Featured BiographyImage source: StarsUnfolded
Quick Info
Date of birth24 June 1937
Age86 Years
BirthplaceMussoorie, British India (now in Uttarakhand, India)
ProfessionNovelist
NationalityIndian
Marital statusWidow
SpouseAshvin Desai
FamilyChildren: Rahul Desai; Arjun Desai; Kiran Desai; Tani Desai
Anita Desai Biography
Anita Desai is an Indian novelist born in Mussoorie in 1937. Over a six-decade career she has published novels, short stories and novellas, taught creative
Early life and backgroundAnita Desai was born Anita Mazumdar on 24 June 1937 in Mussoorie, then part of British India. She grew up in a multilingual household; her father, D. N. Mazumdar, was a Bengali businessman and her mother, Toni Nime, was a German immigrant. From an early age Desai was exposed to literature and music: her mother kept a German library and classical records, and Desai began reading and writing in English as a child. She completed her schooling at Queen Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Delhi and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Miranda House, University of Delhi, in 1957.
Career
Desai published her first novel, Cry, the Peacock, in 1963, launching a steady output of fiction that includes novels, short stories and novellas. During the late 1970s she produced several notable works in quick succession, including Fire on the Mountain, Games at Twilight and Other Stories, The Peacock Garden and Clear Light of Day. Her 1984 novel In Custody was set in Delhi and later adapted into a Merchant Ivory film featuring Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri.
Her work has been recognised repeatedly: Fire on the Mountain won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and an award from the National Academy of Letters in 1978; Clear Light of Day and In Custody were shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Village by the Sea won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize; Fasting, Feasting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999; and she received international honours such as the Alberto Moravia Prize and the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2007 she was elected to the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and in 2014 she was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Desai continued publishing into the 21st century. Diamond Dust and Other Stories appeared in 2000, The Zigzag Way in 2004 and a collection of three novellas, The Artist of Disappearance, was published in 2011. Her writing has often explored family life, memory and the inner lives of her characters, and she has cited writers such as Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy and D. H. Lawrence among her influences.
Teaching and academic roles
From the 1990s onward Desai combined writing with an active academic career in the United States. She began teaching creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993 and held the Emeritus John E. Burchard Professorship of Humanities there. She has also served as Elizabeth Drew Visiting Professor at Smith College, Gildersleeve Professor at Barnard College, Purington Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and visiting scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio. She has taught at Baruch College and held residencies such as the Spring 2003 Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College.
Public profile
Desai is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and she is affiliated with Girton College, Cambridge. She writes for publications including The New York Review of Books. She is proficient in several languages, including English, German, Bengali and Hindi, and has been involved in literary initiatives such as the Writers Workshop in Kolkata, founded in 1958 with peers including the poet P. Lal.
Personal life
Anita Desai married Ashvin Desai, a businessman who later published his own book and worked in software. The couple had four children: two sons, Rahul and Arjun, and two daughters, Kiran Desai—who went on to win the Man Booker Prize—and Tani Desai. Anita Desai lived for many years in the United States and is identified as an Indian national. Her husband passed away in 2020; the family later donated their library to Gargi College in Delhi.
Controversies and public stands
Desai has occasionally been at the centre of public debate. In 1990 she published an essay, A Secret Connivance, that prompted controversy for its arguments about women’s roles. Some readers also reacted strongly to perceived resemblances between characters in her novel In Custody and real-life Urdu poets after the novel’s adaptation to film. In 2015 she supported fellow writers who returned awards in protest at the Sahitya Akademi’s handling of dissent and authors’ rights.
Latest updates
As of 2023 Anita Desai is 86 years old and continues to be recognised for her contribution to literature. Her works remain widely read and taught, and her career spans teaching, fiction and participation in literary life across India, Europe and the United States.
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Recent Work
Collection of three novellas: The Museum of Final Journeys; Translator Translated; The Artist of Disappearance.
2011Novel.
2004Short story collection.
2000Career Highlights
- First novel Cry, the Peacock published in 1963
- Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and National Academy of Letters Award for Fire on the Mountain (1978)
- Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and Fasting, Feasting (1999)
- Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for The Village by the Sea (1983)
- Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature (2003)
- Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (2007)
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Frequently Asked Questions
When was Anita Desai born?
Anita Desai was born on 24 June 1937.
What is Anita Desai known for?
Anita Desai is known for novelist.
What is Anita Desai’s marital status?
Anita Desai's marital status is listed as Widow.
Who is Anita Desai married to?
Anita Desai is publicly listed as married to Ashvin Desai.
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