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Anita Desai

Indian novelist, University professor (born 1937) · India · Writers

Anita Desai is read about 210 times a day, in 40 languages.

Counted to 16 September 2026, not since.

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Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and the emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times.

A life in dates

2014Padma Bhushan in literature & educationAward2011“It is a great influence on one's thoughts to be always on the outside, not belonging.”In their wordsin The Guardian (2011)Read the whole statement

“It is astonishing that now a whole generation has grown up reading Indian literature in English. Nothing was being read when I was a student. We read no Indian writers at all.”In their wordsin The Guardian (2011)Read the whole statement

“I still like to read poetry before starting my work.”In their wordsin The Guardian (2011)Read the whole statement

2003“My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly. (Baruch College Class Interview, 2003)”In their wordsRead the whole statement

1989Padma Shri in literature and educationAward1988“I think everything one reads tends to linger on in one's writing, even after one's forgotten the book one's read. (The Massachusetts Review, 1988)”In their wordsRead the whole statement

1983Guardian Children's Fiction PrizeAward1980“Isn't it strange how life won't flow, like a river, but moves in jumps, as if it were held back by locks that are opened now and then to let it jump forwards in a kind of flood?”In their wordsClear Light Of Day (1980)Read the whole statement

1978Fellow of the Royal Society of LiteratureAwardSahitya Akademi AwardAward1977Winifred Holtby Memorial PrizeAward1937Born24 June 1937

Also in Deutsch

In their own words 10

Anita Desai

10 statements, newest first

It is a great influence on one's thoughts to be always on the outside, not belonging.
2011, in The Guardian (2011), Own words
...why am I constantly writing about the past? Well, I probably couldn't approach the present directly, because I was carrying all of this past with me.
2011, in The Guardian (2011), Own words
It is astonishing that now a whole generation has grown up reading Indian literature in English. Nothing was being read when I was a student. We read no Indian writers at all.
2011, in The Guardian (2011), Own words

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Awards

Padma Bhushan in literature & education2014

Padma Shri in literature and education1989

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize1983

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature1978

Sahitya Akademi Award1978

Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize1977

Honorary Degree of the University of Leeds

In their orbit

Child: Kiran Desai

About this person

Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and the emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. 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. She won the Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea (1983). Her other works include Cry, the Peacock, 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. Since 2020 she has been a Companion of Literature.

Country

India

In common with Anita

Ismail MerchantAlso in In Custody (1994)

Sushma SethAlso in In Custody (1994)

Shashi KapoorAlso in In Custody (1994)Shahrukh HusainAlso in In Custody (1994)

Neena GuptaAlso in In Custody (1994)Hilary MantelBoth received Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize

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