Kiran Desai: Difference between revisions

What links here Related changes Page information Get shortened URL
Created by Ser Amantio di Nicolao
Last edited February 17, 2026
VisualWikitext
>Ser Amantio di Nicolao
→External links: recategorize
 
m update
 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Indian author}}
{{Short description|Indian author (born 1971)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2016}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| image       = Kiran Desai 2015.jpg
| image           = Kiran Desai, author reading on behalf of Salman Rushdie, at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading 6 (cropped).jpg
| imagesize   =  
| imagesize       =  
| name         = Kiran Desai
| name             = Kiran Desai
| caption     = Desai at PEN Gala, 5 May 2015
| caption         = Desai reading on behalf of [[Salman Rushdie]] at the 2024 [[National Book Awards]] finalist reading
| pseudonym   =  
| pseudonym       =  
| birth_date   = {{birth date and age|1971|9|3|df=y}}
| birth_date       =  
| birth_place = [[New Delhi]], India
| birth_place     = [[New Delhi]], India
| occupation   = [[Novelist]]
| occupation       = [[Novelist]]
| nationality = Indian
| nationality     = Indian
| period       = 1998–present
| period           = 1998–present
| genre       =  
| genre           =  
| subject     =  
| alma_mater      = [[Columbia University]]
| movement     =  
| subject         =  
| notableworks = {{ubl|''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]''|''[[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]''}}
| movement         =  
| awards       = {{awd|[[Man Booker Prize]]|2006}}
| notableworks     = {{ubl|''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]''|''[[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]''}}
| relatives   = [[Anita Desai]] (mother)
| 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}}


'''Kiran Desai''' (born 3 September 1971) is an [[Indian people|India]]n [[author]]. Her novel ''[[The Inheritance of Loss]]'' won the [[2006 in literature|2006]] [[Man Booker Prize]]<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>  and the [[National Book Critics Circle]] Fiction Award.<ref name="Hillel2007-09-03" /> In January 2015, [[The Economic Times]] listed her as 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>
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" />


==Early and personal life==
==Literary career==
Kiran Desai is the daughter of [[Anita Desai]]. She was born in [[Delhi]], then spent the early years of her life in [[Pune]] and [[Mumbai]]. 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]], where she studied creative writing at [[Bennington College]], [[Hollins University]], and [[Columbia University]].<ref name="BoldType-interview" />
[[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" />


==Work==
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>
Her first novel, ''[[Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard]]'', was published in 1998 and received [[Praise|accolade]]s from such notable figures as [[Salman Rushdie]].<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 [[Citizenship|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 [[critic]]s 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.<ref name="Hillel2007-09-03" />
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 August 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 May 2007 she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.
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" />


She was awarded a 2013 [[Berlin Prize]] Fellowship at the [[American Academy in Berlin]].
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==
==Bibliography==
Line 48: Line 53:
   | year = 2006
   | year = 2006
   | isbn = 0-241-14348-9
   | isbn = 0-241-14348-9
  }}
* {{cite book
  | title =  [[The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny]]
  | publisher = Hamish Hamilton Ltd
  | year = 2025
  | isbn = 9780307700155
   }}
   }}


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


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


Line 81: Line 94:
  |publisher=Society of Authors  
  |publisher=Society of Authors  
  |access-date=2011-06-14  
  |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  
  |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-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  
  |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=dead
  |url-status=usurped
}}
}}
</ref>
</ref>
Line 118: Line 131:
{{commons category|Kiran Desai}}
{{commons category|Kiran Desai}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://niralimagazine.com/2006/12/legacies-loss-literature/ Legacies, Loss and Literature], ''Nirali Magazine'', December 2006
* [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]
* [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]
* [http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jan/30inter1.htm Rediff interview]
* [http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2007/02/lunch-with-kiran-desai.html Lunch with Kiran Desai]
* [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.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]
* [http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20071105b.html Kiran Desai interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA October 2007]
Line 127: Line 140:


{{Booker Prize}}
{{Booker Prize}}
{{Indian Booker Prize recipients}}
 
{{Portal bar|Biography|India|Literature|Books}}


{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}
Line 134: Line 148:
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American Hindus]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[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 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:Bennington College alumni]]
[[Category:Booker Prize winners]]
[[Category:Booker Prize winners]]
[[Category:Cathedral and John Connon School alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:English-language writers from India]]
[[Category:English-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:Hollins University alumni]]
[[Category:Hollins University alumni]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Indian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Indian people of German descent]]
[[Category:American novelists of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:Novelists from Delhi]]
[[Category:American women writers of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Cathedral and John Connon School alumni]]
[[Category:Women writers from Chandigarh]]
[[Category:Women writers from Chandigarh]]
[[Category:Novelists from Delhi]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:Women writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:Women writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:National Book Critics Circle Award winners]]

Latest revision as of 11:10, 17 February 2026


Kiran Desai
Desai reading on behalf of Salman Rushdie at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading
Desai reading on behalf of Salman Rushdie at the 2024 National Book Awards finalist reading
BornNew Delhi, India
OccupationNovelist
NationalityIndian
Alma materColumbia University
Period1998–present
Notable works
Notable awardsMan Booker Prize
2006
RelativesAnita Desai (mother)

Kiran Desai is an Indian author. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[1][2] In 2015, The Economic Times named her one of 20 most influential global Indian women.[3]

Early life and education[edit | edit source]

Kiran Desai is the daughter of author Anita Desai.[4] Kiran was born in Delhi, then lived in Punjab and in Mumbai, where she studied at Cathedral and John Connon School.[citation needed]

Desai left India at 14, and she and her mother lived in England for a year before moving to the United States.[4] She studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia University.[5]

Literary career[edit | edit source]

Kiran Desai during book tour in 2013

Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998.[6] It won the Betty Trask Award,[7] a prize given by the Society of Authors for best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35.[8]

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.[9] It won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[2] Desai became the youngest woman to win the Booker Prize at age 35 (a record broken by Eleanor Catton in 2013).[10]

In 2008, Desai was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[11] In 2007, she was the featured author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Cold Literature.[12]

In 2008, the Gates Foundation project invited Desai to report on a community of sex workers in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.[13] In 2009, she received the Columbia University Medal for Excellence.[13] Desai was awarded a 2013 Berlin Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.[12]

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".[14] After a break of nearly two decades, her novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, was published in 2025 by Hogarth, an imprint of Random House Publishing Group.[15][16][17][18][19] In September 2025, the novel was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.[20]

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

  • 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.
  • The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. Hamish Hamilton Ltd. 2025. ISBN 9780307700155.

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ "Kiran Desai". The Man Booker Prizes. The Booker Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Italie, Hillel (9 March 2007). "Desai's 'Inheritance' Wins Book Critics Circle Award". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts". The Economic Times. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Snider, Suzanne (Winter 2006–07). "A Proud Inheritance". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  5. ↑ "Bold Type: Interview with Kiran Desai". Random House. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  6. ↑ "Hullabaloo In The Guava Orchard". BookBrowse. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  7. ↑ "Society of Authors — Prizes, Grants and Awards". Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  8. ↑ "The Betty Trask Prize and Awards". Christchurch City Libraries. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "17 Famous Asian Authors: Immerse Yourself In Asian Culture". becomeawritertoday.com. 19 September 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  10. ↑ "Facts & Figures | The Booker Prizes". thebookerprizes.com. August 2023.
  11. ↑ BBC – Radio 3 – Private Passions
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Kiran Desai". The Times of India. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2025.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Kiran Desai". American Academy in Berlin. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  14. ↑ Datta, Sudipta (5 February 2017). "Two alone, two together". The Hindu.
  15. ↑ "Kiran Desai to publish first novel since 'The Inheritance of Loss' came out nearly 20 years ago". AP News. 18 December 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  16. ↑ McBain, Sophie (20 September 2025). "Kiran Desai: 'I never thought it would happen in the US'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  17. ↑ Mars-Jones, Adam (23 October 2025). "Kebabs are consequential". London Review of Books. Vol. 47, no. 19. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  18. ↑ "Kiran Desai's Long-Awaited Return Is a Transcendent Triumph". 14 September 2025. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  19. ↑ Corrigan, Maureen (3 October 2025). "'The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny' is a terrific, tangled love story". NPR. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  20. ↑ Creamer, Ella (23 September 2025). "'Brilliantly human': Kiran Desai and David Szalay make Booker prize shortlist". The Guardian.

External links[edit | edit source]

Template:Booker Prize

Retrieved from "https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kiran_Desai&oldid=446376"
Discover more