Alumna’s latest book included on Oprah book list

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s new book Oleander Girl was named “One of 16 Books to Get Lost in this April” by Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club.

Oleander Girl, a new book by Wright State University alumna Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, has been recommended by Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club as “One of 16 Books to Get Lost in this April.”

Oleander Girl is the story of an orphan teen raised by her grandparents in India who finds the love she always searched for. But her plans are disrupted when a family secret is unearthed.

Divakaruni is an award-winning author, poet and teacher of writing. Her work has been published in more than 50 magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and in more than 50 anthologies. Her books have been translated into 29 languages, and several of them have been bestsellers, both nationally and internationally.

Born in Kolkata, India, Divakaruni came to the United States for her graduate studies. She received a master’s degree in English from Wright State in 1978 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Oleander Girl was published by Simon & Schuster in March.

She teaches in the nationally ranked creative writing program at the University of Houston, where she is the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Creative Writing.

Divakaruni is the recipient of an American Book Award, two Pushcart Prizes, two PEN Syndicated Fiction Awards, the C.Y. Lee Creative Writing Award and the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize, and she has been chosen for the Woman of Achievement Award, the Woman of Vision Award and two National Excellence in Teaching Awards.

More information about Oleander Girl is available at Divakaruni’s website.