Book Discussion Meeting, Saturday May 2, 2015, 2:00 PM, San Leandro Main Library

Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Dakshineswar Kali Temple near Kolkata

From the unimpeachable source of all wisdom, Wikipedia:

 Chitralekha Banerjee Divakaruni was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. She has two brothers. She received her B.A. from the University of Calcutta in 1976. That same year, she went to the United States to attend Wright State University where she received a master's degree. She received a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985 (Christopher Marlowe was the subject of her doctoral dissertation).

Divakaruni put herself through graduate school by taking on odd jobs, working as a babysitter, a store clerk, a bread slicer in a bakery, a laboratory assistant at Wright State University, and a dining hall attendant at International House, Berkeley. She was a graduate teaching assistant at U.C.Berkeley She taught at Foothill College in Los Altos, California and Diablo Valley College. She now lives and teaches in Texas, where she is the at the nationally ranked University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

Divakaruni is a co-founder and former president of Maitri, a helpline founded in 1991 for South Asian women dealing with domestic abuse. Divakaruni serves on its advisory board and on the advisory board of a similar organisation in Houston, Daya. She also serves on the emeritus board pf Pratham Houston, a non-profit organisation working to bring literacy to disadvantaged Indian children. She volunteers for Indo American Charity Organization, a non-profit which raises money to assist various charities in the Houston area.

Meet the author at the book launch of Oleander Girl at the Asia Society Texas Center