Meena Alexander

Meena Alexander was born on February 17, 1951. She is an Indian American Poet, Essayist, Professor, and, Novelist. She was born in Allahabad, India. Meena Alexander is a skilled and talented poet of India. Her real name is Mary Elizabeth Alexander, and she changed her name to Meena Alexander at 15. She is one of the finest poets of modern times. Her parents are George and Mary Alexander. Her father was a meteorologist. Her mother was a homemaker. She is the granddaughter of Kunju, the first woman member of the legislative assembly in the Travancore state. Her maternal grandfather, a social reformer, gave her many books and taught her about buddha and mortality. Her sister's name is Elizabeth Alexander. When she was five years old, she moved to Khartoum. At 13, Meena Alexander translated her poems into Arabic and published them in a newspaper.

She pursued her Bachelor's degree in English and French at Khartoum university. Meena Alexander pursued her Ph.D. in British Romanic Literature at the University of Nottingham, England. She married David Lelyveld, a historian, in 1979. After marriage, she moved to New York Click to look into! >> Read More... with her husband. They named their two children Adam Lelyveld and Svati Lelyveld. For many years she worked as a lecturer at many universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University, the University of Delhi, and the University of Hyderabad. She spoke Malayalam, French, Arabic, English, and Hindi. Her mentors were Jayanta Mahaprata, Kamala Das, Adrienne Rich, and Galway Kinnell. She is famous for her poetry collections like Illiterate Heart and Raw Silk. In 2002, her Illiterate Heart won PEN open book award. In 2009, she was honored with Distinguished Achievement Award by the South Asian Literary Association.

She also wrote novels like Nampally Road and Manhattan Music. She died on November 21, 2018, because of Endometrial Serous cancer. In 2016, Word Masala Foundation Honoured her with Word Masala Award. Her other poetries include I Root My Name, Without Place, Atmospheric Embroidery, Birthplace with Buried Stones, House of a Thousand Doors, Quickly Changing river, and, In the Middle Earth.