Anita Desai facts for kids

Anita Desai (born Anita Mazumdar, 24 June 1937) is a famous Indian writer. She is also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. She is known for her amazing novels and short stories.

Anita Desai has been nominated for the important Booker Prize three times. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her book Fire on the Mountain. She also won the Guardian Prize in 1983 for her children's book, The Village by the Sea.

Early Life and Education

Anita Desai was born in 1937 in Mussoorie, India. Her mother, Toni Nime, was from Germany. Her father, D. N. Mazumdar, was a businessman from Bengal. They met and married in Berlin before World War II.

Her family moved to New Delhi, where Anita grew up. She had two older sisters and a brother. At home, she spoke German with her mother. With her neighbors, she spoke Hindi. She also learned Bengali, Urdu, and English.

Anita started reading and writing in English when she was seven. This made English her main language for writing stories. She even published her first story when she was just nine years old!

She went to Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School in Delhi. Later, she studied English literature at Miranda House at the University of Delhi. She earned her degree in 1957.

In 1958, she married Ashvin Desai. They had four children together. One of her daughters, Kiran Desai, also became a famous writer and won the Booker Prize.

Becoming a Writer

Anita Desai published her first novel, Cry The Peacock, in 1963. She also helped start a publishing company called Writers Workshop in 1958.

Her book Clear Light of Day (1980) is very special to her. It tells a story about growing up in the same neighborhood where she lived. This book is like a personal story for her.

In 1984, she wrote In Custody. This book is about an old Urdu poet. It was nominated for the Booker Prize. Later, in 1993, she started teaching creative writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her novel Fasting, Feasting (1999) was also nominated for the Booker Prize. This book made her even more popular. She continued writing, with The Zigzag Way in 2004 and a collection of short stories, The Artist of Disappearance, in 2011.

Teaching and Recognition

Besides MIT, Anita Desai has taught at other colleges like Mount Holyoke College and Smith College. She is a member of important groups like the Royal Society of Literature. This shows how much her writing is respected.

Books Made into Films

One of her novels, In Custody, was made into a film in 1993. The movie was directed by Ismail Merchant. It starred famous Indian actors like Shashi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi. The film won an award in India for being the best picture in 1994.

Awards and Honors

Anita Desai has received many awards for her writing. Here are some of them:

• 1978 – Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for Fire on the Mountain
• 1978 – Sahitya Akademi Award (India's National Academy of Letters Award) for Fire on the Mountain
• 1980 – Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Clear Light of Day
• 1983 – Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Village by the Sea: an Indian family story
• 1984 – Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for In Custody
• 1999 – Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fasting, Feasting
• 2007 – Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
• 2014 – Padma Bhushan (a high civilian award from the Indian government)
• 2020 – Companion of Literature

See Also

In Spanish: Anita Desai para niños

• Indian English literature
• List of Indian writers