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{{short description|Indian-American writer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Bharati Mukherjee
| image = MukherjeeL3.jpg
| caption = Speaking at the US Ambassador's residence in [[Israel]], June 11, 2004
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =Bharati Mukherjee
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1940|7|27}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal Province]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]])
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|1|28|1940|7|27}}
| death_place = [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Professor
* novelist
* essayist
* short story writer
* author
* fiction writer
* non-fiction writer
}}
| nationality =[[Indian people|Indian]]<br>[[Americans|American]]<br>[[Canadians|Canadian]]
| period =
| genre = Novels, [[Short story|short stories]], essays, travel literature, journalism.
| subjects = Post-colonial Anglophone fiction, Asian American fiction, autobiographical narratives, memoirs, [[American culture]], immigration history, reformation and nationhood in the '90s, [[multiculturalism]] vs. [[mongrelization]], fiction writing, autobiography writing, and the form and theory of fiction.
| movement =
| notableworks =''[[Jasmine (novel)|Jasmine]]''
| website =
|spouse = [[Clark Blaise]]
}}

'''Bharati Mukherjee''' (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an [[Indian American]]-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. She was the author of a number of novels and short story collections, as well as works of nonfiction.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061206233037/http://152.1.96.5/jouvert/v1i1/bharat.htm "Holders of the Word: An Interview with Bharati Mukherjee"]. Tina Chen and S.X. Goudie, University of California, Berkeley]</ref>

==Early life and education==
Of [[Indian people|Indian]] [[Hindu]] [[Bengali Brahmin]] origin, Mukherjee was born in present-day [[Kolkata]], West Bengal, India during British rule. She later travelled with her parents to [[Europe]] after [[Partition of India|Independence]], only returning to Calcutta in the early 1950s. There she attended the [[Loreto School, Kolkata|Loreto School]]. She received her B.A. from the [[University of Calcutta]] in 1959 as a student of [[Loreto College, Kolkata|Loreto College]], and subsequently earned her M.A. from [[Maharaja Sayajirao University]] of [[Baroda]] in 1961.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/now/arts/mukherjee.html "Arts and Culture: Bharati Mukherjee: Her Life and Works"]. PBS, Interview with Bill Moyers, February 5, 2003</ref> She next travelled to the United States to study at the [[University of Iowa]]. She received her M.F.A. from the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]] in 1961 and her PhD in 1969 from the department of Comparative Literature.

==Career==

After more than a decade living in [[Montreal]] and [[Toronto]] in Canada, Mukherjee and her husband, [[Clark Blaise]] returned to the United States. She wrote of the decision in "An Invisible Woman," published in a 1981 issue of ''[[Saturday Night (magazine)|Saturday Night]]''. Mukherjee and Blaise co-authored ''[[Days and Nights in Calcutta]]'' (1977). They also wrote the 1987 work, ''The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy'' ([[Air India Flight 182]]).

In addition to writing many works of fiction and non-fiction, Mukherjee taught at [[McGill University]], [[Skidmore College]], [[Queens College]], and [[City University of New York]] before joining the faculty at [[UC Berkeley]].

In 1988 Mukherjee won the National Book Critics Circle Award- for her collection ''The Middleman and Other Stories''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070223143252/http://www.powells.com/authors/mukherjee.html "Bharati Mukherjee Runs the West Coast Offense"]. Dave Weich, ''Powells'' Interview (April 2002)</ref> In a 1989 interview with Ameena Meer, Mukherjee stated that she considered herself an [[American writers|American writer]], and not an [[Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin|Indian expatriate]] writer.<ref>Meer, Amanda http://bombsite.com/issues/29/articles/1264 Fall 1989. Retrieved May 20, 2013</ref>

Mukherjee died due to complications of [[rheumatoid arthritis]] and [[takotsubo cardiomyopathy]] on January 28, 2017 in [[Manhattan]] at the age of 76.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.indialivetoday.com/novelist-bharati-mukherjee-passes-away/111807.html|title=Novelist Bharati Mukherjee passes away|work=India Live Today|date=February 1, 2017|access-date=February 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204031645/http://www.indialivetoday.com/novelist-bharati-mukherjee-passes-away/111807.html|archive-date=February 4, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was survived by her husband and son. Her other son, Bart, predeceased her in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/books/bharati-mukherjee-dead-author-jasmine.html|title=Bharati Mukherjee, Writer of Immigrant Life, Dies at 76|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 1, 2017|access-date=February 4, 2017|first=William|last=Grimes}}</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Novels===
*''[[The Tiger's Daughter]]'' (1971)
*''[[Wife (novel)|Wife]]'' (1975)
*''[[Jasmine (novel)|Jasmine]]'' (1989)
*''[[The Holder of the World]]'' (1993)
*''[[Leave It to Me (novel)|Leave It to Me]]'' (1997)
*''[[Desirable Daughters]]'' (2002)
*''[[The Tree Bride]]'' (2004)
*''Miss New India'' (2011)

===Short story collections===
*''[[Darkness (short stories)|Darkness]]'' (1985)
*''[[The Middleman and Other Stories]]'' (1988)
*''A Father''
*''The Management of Grief''

===Memoir===
*''[[Days and Nights in Calcutta]]'' (1977, with [[Clark Blaise]])

===Non-fiction===
*''[[The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy]]'' (1987, with Clark Blaise)
* ''Political Culture and Leadership in India'' (1991)
* ''Regionalism in Indian Perspective'' (1992)

==Awards and honors==
* 1988: [[National Book Critics Circle Award]] (''The Middleman and Other Stories'').
* Mukherjee was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from [[Whittier College]] in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/news/tue-02042014-1104-am/noted-indian-american-author-receives-honorary-degree|title=Honorary Degrees {{!}} Whittier College|website=www.whittier.edu|access-date=2020-01-28}}</ref>

== Related novels ==
* ''[[The Tortilla Curtain]]''– [[T.C.Boyle]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. "Bharati Mukherjee." In ''Literature: The Human Experience'', 9th edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006: 1581–1582.
*Alter, Stephen and Wimal Dissanayake (ed.). "Nostalgia by Bharati Mukherjee." ''The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories.'' New Delhi, Middlesex, New York: Penguin Books, 1991: 28–40.
*Kerns-Rustomji, Roshni. "Bharati Mukherjee." In ''The Heath Anthology of American Literature'', 5th edition, Vol. E. Paul Lauter and [[Richard Yarborough]] (eds.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006: 2693–2694.
*Majithia, Sheetal. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140112040407/http://samarmagazine.org/archive/articles/59 "Of Foreigners and Fetishes: A Reading of Recent South Asian American Fiction"], ''Samar'' 14: The South Asian American Generation (Fall/Winter 2001): 52–53.
*New, W. H., ed. "Bharati Mukerjee." In ''Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002: 763–764.
*[[Selvadurai, Shyam]] (ed.). "Bharati Mukherjee: The Management of Grief." ''Story-Wallah: A Celebration of South Asian Fiction.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005: 91–108.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718023728/http://welcomebooks.com/india/index.html ''India: In Word and Image'']
* [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bharati-mukherjee/ Bharati Mukherjee entry] in ''[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]''
* [https://www.whittier.edu/news/tue-02042014-1104-am/noted-indian-american-author-receives-honorary-degree]

===Interviews===
* [http://www.beatrice.com/interviews/mukherjee/ Beatrice Interview 1997]
* A [http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/Alumni/Cal_Monthly/February_2003/QA-_A_conversation_with_Bharati_Mukherjee.asp conversation] with Bharati Mukherjee (February 2003)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130111071650/http://globalindianewswire.com/index.php/Interviews/Arts-and-Literature/womens-empowerment-collateral-gain-of-globalization-mukherjee.html Global India Newswire interview (January 2012)]
* [http://bombsite.com/issues/29/articles/1264 Meer, Ameena: Bharati Mukherjee.] (Fall 1989)

===Misc.===
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/mukherjee_life.shtml BBC World Service]
*[http://www2.oprah.com/rys/omag/rys_omag_200208_aha.jhtml A Declaration of Independence]
*[http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/india/mukherjee.html Further links]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Bharati}}
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
[[Category:American Hindus]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Bengali writers]]
[[Category:Writers from California]]
[[Category:Canadian women novelists]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]]
[[Category:American novelists of Indian descent]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American women writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:American people of Bengali descent]]
[[Category:Loreto College, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda alumni]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
[[Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni]]
[[Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty]]
[[Category:Indian postmodern writers]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Canadian women short story writers]]
[[Category:American short story writers of Asian descent]]
[[Category:American writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian short story writers]]
[[Category:American academics of Indian descent]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:Women writers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Novelists from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Novelists from Iowa]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from cardiomyopathy]]
[[Category:Deaths from arthritis]]

Bharati Mukherjee - Revision history

UpdateBot at 14:05, 25 December 2021