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Anita Desai Wikipedia

Anita Desai (b. June 24, 1937) is an India|Indian novelist, notable for her portrayal of female characters. She was formerly known as Anita Mazumdar.

She was born to a German mother and an Indian father in Mussoorie, India. She is married and has four children. She has taught at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and currently teaches at MIT.

The 1993 film In Custody (movie)|In Custody (based upon her novel of the same name), directed by Ismail Merchant, won the 1994 President of India Gold Medal for Best Picture. The film stars the noted actors Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Girton College, Cambridge and Clare Hall, Cambridge. Her most recent novel is The Zig Zag Way (2004), set in 20th century Mexico.

Anita Desai lives in the United States, where she is the John E. Burchard Professor of Writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.