TajWoolcock75 at 04:43, 29 April 2026

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{{short description|Indian novelist (born 1937)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Anita Desai
| honorific_suffix = [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature|FRSL]]
| birth_name = Anita Mazumdar
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1937}}
| birth_place = [[Mussoorie]], [[Garhwal Kingdom|Princely State of Tehri Garhwal]], [[British India]] (present-day [[Uttarakhand]], [[India]])
| occupation = Writer, professor
| nationality = Indian
| period = 1963–present
| genre = Fiction
| alma_mater = [[University of Delhi]]
| spouse = Ashvin Desai
| children = 4, including [[Kiran Desai]]
| notableworks = ''In Custody''; ''Baumgartner's Bombay''
}}

'''Anita Desai''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL}} (born '''Anita Mazumdar'''; 1937) is an Indian novelist and the emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref name=britishcouncil>{{cite web|title=Anita Desai-Biography|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/anita-desai|website=British Council|publisher=Chatto & Windus|access-date=29 April 2018|archive-date=20 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620232323/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/anita-desai|url-status=dead}}</ref> She has been shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]] three times.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 15, 1984|first=Sunil|last=Sethi|title=Book review: Anita Desai's 'In Custody'|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19841115-book-review-anita-desai-in-custody-803453-1984-11-15|access-date=2021-12-01|website=India Today|language=en}}</ref><ref name=bookerprize>{{cite web |title=Booker prize winners, shortlists and judges |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/table/2008/sep/29/booker-prize-winners-shortlists |website=The Guardian |access-date=5 October 2021 |date=10 October 2008}}</ref> She received the [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] in 1978 for her novel ''Fire on the Mountain'', from the [[Sahitya Akademi]], India's National Academy of Literature.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sahitya Akademi Award – English (Official listings)|url=http://www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in/old_version/awa10304.htm|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090331233952/http://www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in/old_version/awa10304.htm|archive-date=31 March 2009}}</ref> She won the [[Guardian Prize]] for ''[[The Village by the Sea]]'' (1983).<ref name=relaunch>
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/12/guardianchildrensfictionprize2001.guardianchildrensfictionprize "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners"], guardian.co.uk, 12 March 2001; retrieved 5 August 2012.</ref> Her other works include ''Cry, the Peacock'',<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cry, the peacock {{!}} WorldCat.org |oclc=1145430492 |language=en}}</ref> ''Voices in the City'' (1963), ''Fire on the Mountain'' (1977) and an anthology of short stories, ''Games at Twilight'' (1978). She is on the advisory board of the [[Lalit Kala Akademi]] and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature]], London.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 30, 2013|first=Sunil|last=Sethi|title=Clear Light of Day is about time as a destroyer, as a preserver: Anita Desai|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19801215-clear-light-of-day-is-about-time-as-a-destroyer-as-a-preserver-anita-desai-773643-2013-11-30|access-date=2021-12-01|website=India Today|language=en}}</ref> Since 2020 she has been a [[Companion of Literature]].

==Early life==
Desai was born in 1937 in [[Mussoorie]], India, to a German immigrant mother, Toni Nime, and a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] businessman, D. N. Mazumdar.<ref name=kirjasto>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/desai.htm|title=Anita Desai|website=Books and Writers|first=Petri|last=Liukkonen|publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library|location=Finland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041014083145/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/desai.htm|archive-date=14 October 2004|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=britishcouncil/> Her father met her mother while he was an engineering student in pre-war [[Berlin]]. They married during a period when it was still unusual for an Indian man to marry a European woman. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to [[New Delhi]], where Desai was raised with her two older sisters and brother.<ref>{{cite web|title=Revisiting Anita Desai|url=https://www.rediff.com/news/2007/dec/04spec.htm|access-date=2020-11-21|website=www.rediff.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Guardian Staff|date=1999-06-19|title=A passage from India|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/jun/19/books.guardianreview11|access-date=2020-11-21|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

She grew up speaking Hindi with her neighbours, and German only at home. She also spoke Bengali, Urdu and English. She first learned to read and write in English at school at the age of seven. As a result, English became her "literary language". She published her first story at the age of nine.<ref name=kirjasto/>

She attended Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School in Delhi and received her B.A. in English literature in 1957 from the [[Miranda House]] at the [[University of Delhi]]. The following year she married Ashvin Desai, later the director of a computer software company and author of the book ''Between Eternities: Ideas on Life and The Cosmos''.<ref>{{cite web|title=After Anita, Kiran; Ashvin Desai goes the write way|url=https://www.news18.com/videos/books/ashvin-desai-bookashvin-kiran-sot-285397.html|access-date=2020-12-01|website=[[News18]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=2008-10-12|title=Author Ashvin Desai loses war with cancer|url=https://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/bookworm/author-ashvin-desai-loses-war-with-cancer_13039.html|access-date=2020-12-01|website=[[Zee News]]|language=en}}</ref>

They had four children, including [[Booker Prize]]-winning novelist [[Kiran Desai]]. Her children were taken to Thul (near [[Alibag]]h) for weekends, where Desai set her novel ''[[The Village by the Sea]]''.<ref name="Thakur">{{cite book|author=Dr. Kajal Thakur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iudCCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9|title=Man-Woman Bonding In Socio-Cultural Indian Concept| date=12 May 2015 |publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-329-13103-3|pages=9–}}{{self-published source|date=October 2020}}</ref><ref name=kirjasto/> For that work she won the 1983 [[Guardian Children's Fiction Prize]], a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.<ref name=relaunch/>

==Career==
Desai published her first novel, ''Cry, the Peacock'', in 1963. In 1958 she collaborated with [[P. Lal]] and founded the publishing firm [[Writers Workshop (publisher)|Writers Workshop]]. She considers ''[[Clear Light of Day]]'' (1980) her most autobiographical work as it is set during her coming of age and also in the same neighborhood in which she grew up.<ref>Elizabeth Ostberg. [http://www.haverford.edu/engl/engl277b/Contexts/anita_desai.htm "Notes on the Biography of Anita Desani"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070120033542/http://www.haverford.edu/engl/engl277b/Contexts/anita_desai.htm|date=20 January 2007|access-date=21 June 2012}}</ref>

In 1984, she published ''[[In Custody (novel)|In Custody]]'' – about an [[Urdu]] poet in his declining days – which was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]]. In 1993, she became a creative writing teacher at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.litweb.net/biogs/desai_anita.html|title=LitWeb.net|access-date=27 December 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006221431/http://www.litweb.net/biogs/desai_anita.html|archive-date=6 October 2006}} {{page needed|date=August 2012}}</ref>

The 1999 Booker Prize finalist novel ''[[Fasting, Feasting]]'' increased her popularity. Her novel ''[[The Zigzag Way]]'', set in 20th-century Mexico, appeared in 2004 and her latest collection of short stories, ''[[The Artist of Disappearance]]'', was published in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Page in the Life: Anita Desai|date=26 June 2012 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9347151/A-Page-in-the-Life-Anita-Desai.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9347151/A-Page-in-the-Life-Anita-Desai.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=24 March 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Teaching and academic awards==

Desai has taught at [[Mount Holyoke College]], [[Baruch College]], and [[Smith College]]. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], and Honorary Fellow of [[Girton College, Cambridge]] to which she dedicated ''Baumgartner's Bombay''.<ref>''Baumgartner's Bombay'', Penguin, 1989.</ref>

==Film==
In 1993, a [[In Custody (film)|film adaptation]] of her novel ''In Custody'' was made by [[Merchant Ivory Productions]], directed by [[Ismail Merchant]] and screenplay by [[Shahrukh Husain]]. It won the 1994 [[President of India Gold Medal for Best Picture]] and starred [[Shashi Kapoor]], [[Shabana Azmi]] and [[Om Puri]].<ref>{{cite web|date=2019-04-16|title='Shayari koi mardon ki jaageer nahi': Shabana Azmi gets nostalgic as cult film In Custody completes 25 years|url=https://www.thestatesman.com/entertainment/shayari-koi-mardon-ki-jaageer-nahi-hai-shabani-azmi-gets-nostalgic-cult-film-custody-completes-25-years-1502746087.html|access-date=2020-12-01|website=[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]}}</ref>

==Awards==
* 1978 – [[Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize]] – ''Fire on the Mountain''
* 1978 – [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] (National Academy of Letters Award) – ''Fire on the Mountain''
* 1980 – [[List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction|Shortlisted, Booker Prize]] for Fiction – ''[[Clear Light of Day]]''<ref name=bookerprize/>
* 1983 – Guardian Children's Fiction Prize – ''[[The Village by the Sea]]: an Indian family story''<ref name="relaunch"/>
* 1984 – [[List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction|Shortlisted, Booker Prize]] for Fiction – ''[[In Custody (novel)|In Custody]]''<ref name=bookerprize/>
* 1993 – [[Neil Gunn]] Prize
* 1999 – [[List of winners and shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize for Fiction|Shortlisted, Booker Prize]] for Fiction: ''[[Fasting, Feasting]]''<ref name=bookerprize/>
* 2000 – Alberto Moravia Prize for Literature (Italy)
* 2003 – [[Benson Medal]] of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]
* 2007 – [[List of Sahitya Akademi fellows|Sahitya Akademi Fellowship]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/fellows/fellows_and_honorary_fellows.jsp|title=Conferment of Sahitya Akademi Fellowship|publisher=Official listings, [[Sahitya Akademi]] website|access-date=15 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701054145/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/fellows/fellows_and_honorary_fellows.jsp|archive-date=1 July 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 2014 – [[Padma Bhushan]]<ref name="britishcouncil" />
* 2020 - [[Companion of Literature]]

== Bibliography ==
=== Novels ===
* ''Cry, The Peacock'' (1963)<ref name=britishcouncil/> Orient Paperbacks {{ISBN|978-81-222008-5-0}}
* ''Voices in the City'' (1965), Orient Paperbacks, {{ISBN|978-81-222005-3-9}}
* ''Bye-bye Blackbird'' (1971), Orient Paperbacks, {{ISBN|978-81-222002-9-4}}
* ''Where Shall We Go This Summer?'' (1975), Orient Paperbacks, {{ISBN|978-81-222008-8-1}}
* ''Fire on the Mountain'' (1977), [[Random House|Random House India]], {{ISBN|978-81-840005-7-3}}
* ''[[Clear Light of Day]]'' (1980), Random House India, {{ISBN|978-81-840001-5-3}}
* ''[[In Custody (novel)|In Custody]]'' (1984)<ref>{{cite web|date=2020-05-25|title=In Custody by Anita Desai|url=https://www.purplepencilproject.com/book-review-in-custody-anita-desai-review/|access-date=2020-06-09|website=Purple Pencil Project|language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''Baumgartner's Bombay'' (1988), Harper Perennial, {{ISBN|978-0618056804}}
* ''[[Journey to Ithaca]]'' (1995), Random House India, {{ISBN|978-81-840007-7-1}}
* ''[[Fasting, Feasting]]'' (1999), Random House India, {{ISBN|978-81-840005-8-0}}
* ''[[The Zigzag Way]]'' (2004), Random House India, {{ISBN|978-81-840007-6-4}}
* ''Rosarita'' (2024),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rosarita by Anita Desai |url=https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/anita-desai/rosarita/9781035044436 |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=www.panmacmillan.com |language=en}}</ref> Picador, {{ISBN|978-10-350444-3-6}}

=== Collections of novellas and short stories ===
* ''Games at Twilight'' (1978), [[Vintage Publishing]], {{ISBN|978-00-994285-3-4}}
* ''Scholar and Gipsy'' (1996), [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], {{ISBN|978-18-579976-5-1}}
* ''Diamond Dust and Other Stories'' (2000), [[Vintage Books]]
* ''Collected Stories'' (2008), Random House India, {{ISBN|978-8184000566}}
* ''The Artist of Disappearance'' (2011), Mariner Books, {{ISBN|978-05-478401-2-3}}
* ''The Complete Stories'' (2017), Chatto and Windus Penguin Random House UK, {{ISBN|978-1784741891}}

=== Children's books ===
* ''The Peacock Garden'' (1974), Mammoth Books, {{ISBN|978-07-497059-2-3}}
* ''Cat on a Houseboat'' (1976), [[Orient Longman]], {{ISBN|978-08-612502-8-8}}
* ''[[The Village by the Sea]]'' (1982), [[Penguin India]], {{ISBN|978-01-433354-9-8}}

==See also==
* [[Indian English literature]]
* [[List of Indian writers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[M. H. Abrams|Abrams, M. H.]] and [[Stephen Greenblatt]]. "Anita Desai". ''The Norton Anthology of English Literature,'' Vol. 2C, 7th Edition. New York: [[W.W. Norton]], 2000: 2768 – 2785.
* Alter, Stephen and [[Wimal Dissanayake]]. "A Devoted Son by Anita Desai". ''The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories.'' New Delhi, Middlesex, New York: Penguin Books, 1991: 92–101.
* Gupta, Indra. ''India's 50 Most Illustrious Women''. ({{ISBN|81-88086-19-3}})
* Selvadurai, Shyam (ed.). "Anita Desai:Winterscape". ''Story-Wallah: A Celebration of South Asian Fiction.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005:69–90.
*Nawale, Arvind M. (ed.). "Anita Desai's Fiction: Themes and Techniques". New Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation, 2011.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name}}
* {{british council}}
* [https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/anita-desai Anita Desai] on the Booker Prize website
* [https://research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00422 Anita Desai: A Preliminary Inventory of Her Collection in the Manuscript Collection at the Harry Ransom Center], University of Texas
* [https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/23473914-de25-4df5-8381-71a1dfb43ad7/content Anita Desai] - a scholarly essay published in 2009 as part of a University of Minnesota project called ''Voices from the Gaps''

{{Anita Desai}}
{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2010–19}}
{{SahityaAkademiFellowship}}
{{Sahitya Akademi Award for English}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|India|Literature|English language}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Anita}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:American novelists of Indian descent]]
[[Category:American women academics]]
[[Category:American women writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:English-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Indian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Indian women screenwriters]]
[[Category:MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty]]
[[Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty]]
[[Category:Novelists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Novelists from Uttarakhand]]
[[Category:PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners]]
[[Category:People from Mussoorie]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Uttarakhand]]
[[Category:Smith College faculty]]
[[Category:Women writers from Uttarakhand]]
[[Category:Miranda House alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women novelists]]

Anita Desai - Revision history

TajWoolcock75 at 04:43, 29 April 2026