Bapsi Sidhwa

Infobox Writer


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name = Bapsi Sidhwa
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birthdate = 1938
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occupation = author
nationality =Pakistan, United States
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influenced = Deepa Mehta
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Bapsi Sidhwa (1938 - ) is an author of Pakistani origin who writes in English. She is perhaps best known for her collaborative work with filmmaker Deepa Mehta: Sidhwa wrote both the 1991 novel "Cracking India" which is the basis for Mehta's 1998 film "Earth" as well as the 2006 novel "" which is based upon Mehta's 2005 film, "Water."

Background

Sidhwa was born to Parsi Zoroastrian parents Peshotan and Tehmina Bhandara in Karachi, Pakistan and later moved with her family to Lahore. She was two when she contracted polio (which has affected her throughout her life) and nine at the time of the partition of the subcontinent (facts which would shape the character of "Lenny" as well as the background for her novel "Cracking India," originally titled, "Ice Candy Man"). [ [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5149 Literary Encyclopedia: Bapsi Sidhwa ] ] She received her B.A. from Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore. She married at the age of 19 and moved to Mumbai, India for five years before she divorced and remarried in Lahore with her present husband. She had three children before beginning her career as an author. She currently resides in Houston, USA. She describes herself as "Punjabi-Parsi-Pakistani"

She has previously taught at the University of Houston, Rice University, Columbia University, Mount Holyoke College, and Brandeis University.

Awards

*Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe/Harvard (1986)
*Visiting Scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation Center, Bellagio, Italy, (1991)
*Sitara-i-Imtiaz, (1991, Pakistan's highest national honor in the arts)
*Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award (1994)
*Premio Mondello for Foreign Authors for "Water" (2007)cite web |title=

Works

*"City of Sin and Splendour : Writings on Lahore" (2006, U.S.)
* "" (2006, U.S. and Canada)
*"Bapsi Sidhwa Omnibus" (2001, Pakistan)
*"An American Brat" (1993, U.S.; 1995, India)
*"Cracking India" (1991, U.S.; 1992, India; originally published as "Ice Candy Man", 1988, England)
*"Pakistani Bride" (1990, U.S.)
*"The Bride" (1982, England; 1983;1984, India)
*"The Crow Eaters" (1978, Pakistan; 1979 &1981, India; 1980, England; 1982, U.S.)
*"A Pakistani Bride" will be published in the US by Milkweed, Feb 2008

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bapsisidhwa.com Official website]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5149 Literary Encyclopedia]
* [http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/sidhwa_bapsi.html Voices from the Gaps]
* [http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Sidhwa+Bapsi SAWNET]
* [http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Sidhwa.html Biography]
* [http://www.jazbah.org/bapsis.php Profile of Bapsi Sidhwa]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3106541.stm Sense of the City: Lahore (BBC Online article by Bapsi Sidhwa]
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