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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. 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 (…
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culture · Indian novelist (born 1937) · writer · novelist · university teacher · short story writer · also Anita Desai, Anita Mazumdar Desai, Desai
Born 24 June 1937 · Q268495
23 published statements · 0 followers
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“I remember being very lost at school, not being popular or successful. It was always a great struggle to belong. It was an immense relief to come home to books, to be alone. I had a great need for privacy that was unusual for a child but not at all for a writer.”
Telangana Today: India’s Asian Games medal hopes strong, says Harmeet Desai ahead of campaign
India Tribune - Chicago: 'Short chapter, but a meaningful one’: Monty Desai resigns as Canada coach - India Tribune
Cricketnmore: 'Short Chapter, But A Meaningful One’: Monty Desai Resigns As Canada Coach | Today Cricket Match in English
marketscreener.com: Anupam Rasayan India Limited Announces Appointment of Ravi Desai to Chief Operating Officer, Effective August 14, 2026
The Guardian: Rosarita by Anita Desai – a luminous search for a mother
The Guardian: Anita Desai: ‘After I left India, I had to train myself to express my opinions’
Awarded Padma Bhushan in literature & education (2014).
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As part of a University of Minnesota project called Voices from the Gaps
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And her latest collection of short stories, The Artist of Disappearance, was published in 2011
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Became a creative writing teacher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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A film adaptation of her novel In Custody was made by Merchant Ivory Productions, directed by Ismail Merchant and screenplay by Shahrukh Husain
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Awarded Padma Shri in literature and education (1989).
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Published In Custody – about an Urdu poet in his declining days – which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize
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Awarded Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Village by the Sea (1983).
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Awarded Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (1978).
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Awarded Sahitya Akademi Award for Fire on the Mountain (1978).
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– Sahitya Akademi Award (National Academy of Letters Award) – Fire on the Mountain
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For her novel Fire on the Mountain, from the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Literature
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Awarded Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize (1977).
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From the Miranda House at the University of Delhi
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Born 1937-06-24.
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In Mussoorie, India, to a German immigrant mother, Toni Nime, and a Bengali businessman, D
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