AMARENDRA NATH ROY at 05:40, 17 February 2026

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{{Short description|Indian author (born 1971)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox writer 
| image = Kiran Desai, author reading on behalf of Salman Rushdie, at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading 6 (cropped).jpg
| imagesize =
| name = Kiran Desai
| caption = Desai reading on behalf of [[Salman Rushdie]] at the 2024 [[National Book Awards]] finalist reading
| pseudonym =
| birth_date =
| birth_place = [[New Delhi]], India
| occupation = [[Novelist]]
| nationality = Indian
| period = 1998–present
| genre =
| alma_mater = [[Columbia University]]
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks = {{ubl|''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]''|''[[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]''}}
| awards = {{awards|[[Man Booker Prize]]|2006}}
| relatives = [[Anita Desai]] (mother)
}}

'''Kiran Desai''' is an Indian author. Her novel ''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]'' won the [[2006 in literature|2006]] [[Man Booker Prize]] and the [[National Book Critics Circle]] Fiction Award.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kiran Desai|url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/people/kiran-desai|work=The Man Booker Prizes|publisher=The Booker Prize Foundation|access-date=23 August 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014120110/http://themanbookerprize.com/people/kiran-desai|archive-date=14 October 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Hillel2007-09-03" /> In 2015, ''[[The Economic Times]]'' named her one of 20 most influential global Indian women.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/global-indian-women-top-20-india-born-globally-successful-women-from-business-and-arts/articleshow/45745323.cms| title=Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts | publisher=[[The Economic Times]] | date=5 January 2015 | access-date=30 November 2017}}</ref>

==Early life and education ==
Kiran Desai is the daughter of author [[Anita Desai]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Snider |first=Suzanne |date=Winter 2006–07 |title=A Proud Inheritance |url=https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/proud-inheritance |access-date=21 September 2025 |magazine=[[Columbia University|Columbia Magazine]]}}</ref> Kiran was born in [[Delhi]], then lived in [[Punjab]] and in [[Mumbai]], where she studied at [[Cathedral and John Connon School]].{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Desai left India at 14, and she and her mother lived in England for a year before moving to the United States.<ref name=":0" /> She studied creative writing at [[Bennington College]], [[Hollins University]], and [[Columbia University]].<ref name="BoldType-interview" />

==Literary career==
[[File:Kiran Desai 2013.jpg|thumb|upright|Kiran Desai during book tour in 2013]]
Desai's first novel, ''[[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]'', was published in 1998.<ref name="BookBrowse" /> It won the [[Betty Trask Award]],<ref name="societyofauthors" /> a prize given by the [[Society of Authors]] for best new novels by citizens of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] under the age of 35.<ref name="christchurch-lib" />

Her second book, ''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]'' (2006), was widely praised by critics throughout [[Asia]], Europe, and the United States. It is set in the [[Himalayas]] and explores themes of identity, culture clash, and [[colonialism]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-19 |title=17 Famous Asian Authors: Immerse Yourself In Asian Culture |url=https://becomeawritertoday.com/famous-asian-authors/ |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=becomeawritertoday.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> It won the 2006 [[Man Booker Prize]] and the 2006 [[National Book Critics Circle]] Fiction Award.<ref name="Hillel2007-09-03" /> Desai became the youngest woman to win the Booker Prize at age 35 (a record broken by [[Eleanor Catton]] in 2013).<ref>{{cite web |title=Facts & Figures {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/facts-figures |website=thebookerprizes.com|date=August 2023 }}</ref>

In 2008, Desai was a guest on ''[[Private Passions]]'', the biographical music discussion programme hosted by [[Michael Berkeley]] on [[BBC Radio 3]].<ref name="privatepassions" /> In 2007, she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=18 March 2020 |title=Kiran Desai |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/authors/kiran-desai/articleshow/74688401.cms |access-date=21 September 2025 |work=[[The Times of India]]}}</ref>

In 2008, the [[Gates Foundation]] project invited Desai to report on a community of sex workers in the coastal state of [[Andhra Pradesh]].<ref name="Kiran Desai">{{Cite web |title=Kiran Desai |url=https://www.americanacademy.de/person/kiran-desai/ |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=American Academy in Berlin |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2009, she received the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.<ref name="Kiran Desai" /> Desai was awarded a 2013 [[Berlin Prize]] Fellowship at the [[American Academy in Berlin]].<ref name=":1" />

In 2017, Desai said that she had been working for more than a decade on a new book "about power… about a young Indian woman out in India and the world".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Datta |first1=Sudipta |date=5 February 2017 |title=Two alone, two together |url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/Two-alone-two-together/article17194613.ece |website=The Hindu |language=en-IN}}</ref> After a break of nearly two decades, her novel, ''[[The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny]]'', was published in 2025 by [[Hogarth Press|Hogarth]], an imprint of [[Random House Publishing Group]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-18 |title=Kiran Desai to publish first novel since 'The Inheritance of Loss' came out nearly 20 years ago |url=https://apnews.com/article/kiran-desai-new-novel-inheritance-loss-ebbc6d4b0821f413ce08fb9d2abd5276 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=McBain |first=Sophie |date=2025-09-20 |title=Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’ |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/20/kiran-desai-i-never-thought-it-would-happen-in-the-us |access-date=2025-10-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mars-Jones |first=Adam |date=2025-10-23 |title=Kebabs are consequential |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n19/adam-mars-jones/kebabs-are-consequential |access-date=2025-10-15 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=47 |issue=19 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-09-14 |title=Kiran Desai’s Long-Awaited Return Is a Transcendent Triumph |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/books/review/kiran-desai-the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sunny.html |access-date=2025-10-15 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Corrigan |first=Maureen |date=2025-10-03 |title='The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is a terrific, tangled love story |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5560818/the-loneliness-of-sonia-and-sunny-review-kiran-desai |access-date=2025-10-15 |work=NPR |language=en}}</ref> In September 2025, the novel was shortlisted for the [[2025 Booker Prize]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=‘Brilliantly human’: Kiran Desai and David Szalay make Booker prize shortlist|journal=[[The Guardian]] |last=Creamer |first=Ella |date=2025-09-23 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/23/brilliantly-human-kiran-desai-and-david-szalay-make-booker-prize-shortlist}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book
| title = [[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]
| publisher = Faber and Faber
| year = 1998
| isbn = 0-571-19336-6
}}
* {{cite book
| title = [[The Inheritance of Loss]]
| publisher = Hamish Hamilton Ltd
| year = 2006
| isbn = 0-241-14348-9
}}
* {{cite book
| title = [[The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny]]
| publisher = Hamish Hamilton Ltd
| year = 2025
| isbn = 9780307700155
}}

==See also==
* [[Desai]]
* [[Indians in the New York metropolitan area]]
* [[Indian English literature]]
* [[List of Indian writers|Indian Writers]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em
| refs =

<ref name="BoldType-interview">
{{cite web
| title = Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai
| publisher = Random House
| access-date = 2011-06-14
| url = http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/interview.html
}}
</ref>

<ref name="BookBrowse">
{{cite web
| title = Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard
| publisher = BookBrowse
| access-date = 2011-06-14
| url = http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=317
}}
</ref>

<ref name="societyofauthors">
{{cite web
|title=Society of Authors — Prizes, Grants and Awards
|publisher=Society of Authors
|access-date=2011-06-14
|url=http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?parentid=7&pid=52&par_nm=Prizes,%20grants%20and%20awards
|archive-date=11 February 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211171127/http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?parentid=7&pid=52&par_nm=Prizes%2C%20grants%20and%20awards
|url-status=usurped
}}
</ref>

<ref name="christchurch-lib">
{{cite web
| title = The Betty Trask Prize and Awards
| publisher = Christchurch City Libraries
| access-date = 2011-06-14
| url = http://library.christchurch.org.nz/LiteraryPrizes/BettyTrask/
}}
</ref>

<ref name="Hillel2007-09-03">
{{cite news
| title = Desai's 'Inheritance' Wins Book Critics Circle Award
| last = Italie
| first = Hillel
| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802042.html
| newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]
| date = 2007-03-09
| access-date = 2013-08-23
}}
</ref>

<ref name="privatepassions">
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cwzgx BBC – Radio 3 – Private Passions]
</ref>

}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Kiran Desai}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://niralimagazine.com/2006/12/legacies-loss-literature/ Legacies, Loss and Literature] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213084641/https://niralimagazine.com/2006/12/legacies-loss-literature/ |date=13 December 2017 }}, ''Nirali Magazine'', December 2006
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060526161904/http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Desai+Kiran SAWNET biography]
* [http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/30inter1.htm Rediff interview]
* [https://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2007/02/lunch-with-kiran-desai.html Lunch with Kiran Desai]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/desai/interview.html Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai]
* [http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20071105b.html Kiran Desai interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA October 2007]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304101001/http://www.americanacademy.de/home/person/kiran-desai Kiran Desai at the American Academy Berlin as Holtzbrinck Fellow]

{{Booker Prize}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|India|Literature|Books}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Kiran}}
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:American Hindus]]
[[Category:American novelists of Indian descent]]
[[Category:American women writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Bennington College alumni]]
[[Category:Booker Prize winners]]
[[Category:Cathedral and John Connon School alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:English-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:Hollins University alumni]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Indian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:Novelists from Delhi]]
[[Category:Women writers from Chandigarh]]
[[Category:Women writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:National Book Critics Circle Award winners]]

Kiran Desai - Revision history

AMARENDRA NATH ROY at 05:40, 17 February 2026