Anita Desai was born & educated in India. Among her many published works are "Fasting, Feasting" (a finalist for the 1999 Booker Prize), "Baumgartner's Bombay," "In Custody," "Games at Twilight," & "Diamond Dust." Her awards & honors include the Alberto Moravia Award, the National Academy of Letters Award, & the Winifred Holtby Prize of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she teaches writing at MIT.