“After 9/11, there was so much distress in America that it led to an inter-cultural breakdown. Some of our communities were targeted. Many of our adults shut themselves off from other cultures. I tried to bring children of Indian and other cultures together in my literature.”

Indian-born American author and poet

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-born American author and poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her work has reached readers across fiction and poetry, and 107 quotes from her appear on this site. She is best known for Arranged Marriage, her short story collection, which won an American Book Award in 1996. Two of her novels and one short story were adapted into films, extending her reach beyond the page into cinema.