Fault Lines

From India to Sudan to England, and finally to the island of Manhattan, poet Meena Alexander traces her growth as a writer and a woman over borders, through decades, and across cultures. Memories of a privileged childhood in post-colonial India and Africa surface amid her present life in multicultural America. This courageous and candid memoir was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of 1993's best books.

About the Author :
An award-winning poet and scholar, Meena Alexander teaches in the PhD program in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and the MFA program at Hunter College. She was born in India and raised there as well as in Sudan. Earning a BA in English and French from Khartoum University and a PhD in English studies from Nottingham University, Alexander has concentrated much of her work on migration, its impact on subjectivity, and the violence that often compels people to cross borders. She is the editor of Indian Love Poems and the author of The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience, Stone Roots, House of a Thousand Doors, River and Bridge, and Illiterate Heart (winner of the PEN Open Book Award).

Review :
"Evocative and moving." --Publishers Weekly "Meena Alexander will be a part of the history of global culture. She knows how it looks, feels, tastes, and sounds; how it creates and splits identity. Ten years ago, she published an extraordinary memoir, Fault Lines. Now, with her habitual courage and subtlety and eloquence, she has interlaced the memoir's words with new experiences, perceptions, pain, and visions. Fault Lines is faultless." --Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School, New York University "This new edition of Fault Lines shows us a poet intent on seeing herself straight. The narrative digs deeper into childhood and reexamines adulthood more painfully than its predecessor, but image." --Jill Ker Conway, author of True North "Meena Alexander's acute poetic sensibility makes this memoir a joy to read. At the same time, the writing is grounded enough to evoke the earthier loam of violence and reality." --Bapsi Sidhwa, author of Cracking India "Evocative and moving." --Publishers Weekly "Meena Alexander will be a part of the history of global culture. She knows how it looks, feels, tastes, and sounds; how it creates and splits identity. Ten years ago, she published an extraordinary memoir, Fault Lines. Now, with her habitual courage and subtlety and eloquence, she has interlaced the memoir's words with new experiences, perceptions, pain, and visions. Fault Lines is faultless." --Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School, New York University "This new edition of Fault Lines shows us a poet intent on seeing herself straight. The narrative digs deeper into childhood and reexamines adulthood more painfully than its predecessor, but image." --Jill Ker Conway, author of True North "Meena Alexander's acute poetic sensibility makes this memoir a joy to read. At the same time, the writing is grounded enough to evoke the earthier loam of violence and reality." --Bapsi Sidhwa, author of Cracking India