As part of the annual Ida and Cecil Green Honors Chair program, the Department of English will host professor and award-winning author and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Feb. 20-22.

Divakaruni will share her life experiences as a writer who addresses issues of women, immigration, the South Asian experience, history, myth, magic, and diversity. On Monday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m., Divakaruni will deliver a free, public lecture, “A Writer’s Journey,” in Moudy North 141.

Chitra Divakaruni was born in India and is a professor of English at the University of Houston. Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage, was awarded the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award for Fiction, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She has since written four best-selling novels, The Mistress of Spices, Sister of My Heart , Vine of Desire, and Queen of Dreams, and the short story collection, The Unknown Errors of Our Lives. She also has four poetry collections, including Leaving Yuba City, and has published two children's novels, Neela: Victory Song and The Conch Bearer. Her latest novel is One Amazing Thing.

Divakaruni's awards include two PEN Fiction awards, two Pushcart Prizes, a Gerbode Foundation award, and an Allen Ginsberg poetry prize. Mistress of Spices was chosen as one of the best 100 books of the 20th century by the San Francisco Chronicle and has been made into a film. Divakaruni's work has been translated into 13 languages, including Hebrew, Dutch and Japanese. Her writing has received extraordinary praise. The Wall Street Journal wrote,  “Ms. Divakaruni emphasizes the cathartic force of storytelling with sumptuous prose . . . she defies categorization, beautifully blending the chills of reality with rich imaginings.” USA Today wrote, “Her literary voice is a sensual bridge between worlds. India and America . Children and parents. Men and Women. Passion and pragmatism.”

For more information, visit http://www.chitradivakaruni.com or phone ext. 7240.