Kiran Desai
2006
Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971) is an Indian author. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize[1] and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[2] In January 2015, The Economic Times listed her as one of 20 "most influential" global Indian women.[3]
Early and personal life
Kiran Desai is the daughter of novelist Anita Desai. Kiran was born in Delhi, then spent the early years of her life in Punjab and in Mumbai, where she studied at Cathedral and John Connon School. She left India at 14, and she and her mother lived in England for a year, before moving to the United States.
Kiran Desai studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia University.[4]
Work
Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades from such figures as Salman Rushdie.[5] It won the Betty Trask Award,[6] a prize given by the Society of Authors for best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.[7]
Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss, (2006) was widely praised by critics throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. It won the 2006 Man Booker Prize, as well as the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[2] Desai became the youngest-ever woman to win the Booker Prize at the age of 35 (this record was broken by Eleanor Catton in 2013).[8]
In August 2008, Desai was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[9] In May 2007, she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.
Desai was awarded a 2013 Berlin Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.
Desai lives in New York City. She stated in 2017 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", which was slated to be out the following year. The novel has not been released; as of 2021, Desai has published no books since her Booker Prize-winning second novel in 2006.[10]
Bibliography
- Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard. Faber and Faber. 1998. ISBN 0-571-19336-6.
- The Inheritance of Loss. Hamish Hamilton Ltd. 2006. ISBN 0-241-14348-9.
See also
References
- ^ "Kiran Desai". The Man Booker Prizes. The Booker Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
- ^ a b Italie, Hillel (9 March 2007). "Desai's 'Inheritance' Wins Book Critics Circle Award". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
- ^ "Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts". The Economic Times. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ^ "Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai". Random House. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard". BookBrowse. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "The Betty Trask Prize and Awards". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Facts & Figures | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. August 2023.
- ^ BBC – Radio 3 – Private Passions
- ^ Datta, Sudipta (5 February 2017). "Two alone, two together". The Hindu.
External links
- Legacies, Loss and Literature Archived 13 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Nirali Magazine, December 2006
- SAWNET biography
- Rediff interview
- Lunch with Kiran Desai
- Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai
- Kiran Desai interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA October 2007
- Kiran Desai at the American Academy Berlin as Holtzbrinck Fellow
- v
- t
- e
- 1969: P. H. Newby (Something to Answer For)
- 1970: Bernice Rubens (The Elected Member)
- 1970 Lost Prize: J. G. Farrell (Troubles)
- 1971: V. S. Naipaul (In a Free State)
- 1972: John Berger (G.)
- 1973: J. G. Farrell (The Siege of Krishnapur)
- 1974: Nadine Gordimer (The Conservationist) and Stanley Middleton (Holiday)
- 1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Heat and Dust)
- 1976: David Storey (Saville)
- 1977: Paul Scott (Staying On)
- 1978: Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea)
- 1979: Penelope Fitzgerald (Offshore)
- 1980: William Golding (Rites of Passage)
- 1981: Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children)
- 1982: Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark)
- 1983: J. M. Coetzee (Life & Times of Michael K)
- 1984: Anita Brookner (Hotel du Lac)
- 1985: Keri Hulme (The Bone People)
- 1986: Kingsley Amis (The Old Devils)
- 1987: Penelope Lively (Moon Tiger)
- 1988: Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda)
- 1989: Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day)
- 1990: A. S. Byatt (Possession)
- 1991: Ben Okri (The Famished Road)
- 1992: Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Barry Unsworth (Sacred Hunger)
- 1993: Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha)
- 1994: James Kelman (How Late It Was, How Late)
- 1995: Pat Barker (The Ghost Road)
- 1996: Graham Swift (Last Orders)
- 1997: Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)
- 1998: Ian McEwan (Amsterdam)
- 1999: J. M. Coetzee (Disgrace)
- 2000: Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin)
- 2001: Peter Carey (True History of the Kelly Gang)
- 2002: Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
- 2003: DBC Pierre (Vernon God Little)
- 2004: Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty)
- 2005: John Banville (The Sea)
- 2006: Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss)
- 2007: Anne Enright (The Gathering)
- 2008: Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)
- 2009: Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall)
- 2010: Howard Jacobson (The Finkler Question)
- 2011: Julian Barnes (The Sense of an Ending)
- 2012: Hilary Mantel (Bring Up the Bodies)
- 2013: Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries)
- 2014: Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
- 2015: Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings)
- 2016: Paul Beatty (The Sellout)
- 2017: George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo)
- 2018: Anna Burns (Milkman)
- 2019: Margaret Atwood (The Testaments) and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other)
- 2020: Douglas Stuart (Shuggie Bain)
- 2021: Damon Galgut (The Promise)
- 2022: Shehan Karunatilaka (The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida)
- 2023: Paul Lynch (Prophet Song)