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Meena Alexander

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Meena Alexander
A picture of Alexander holding a microphone
Alexander at Hyderabad Literary Festival, 2016
BornMary Elizabeth Alexander
(1951-02-17)17 February 1951
Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Died21 November 2018(2018-11-21) (aged 67)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation
  • Poet
  • Author
  • Scholar
  • Essayist
  • Professor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityIndian
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationUniversity of Khartoum
University of Nottingham (PhD)
Notable worksFault Lines: A Memoir; Illiterate Heart
Notable awards2009 Distinguished Achievement Award, South Asian Literary Association; 2002 PEN Open Book Award
Website
meenaalexander.commons.gc.cuny.edu

Meena Alexander (17 February 1951 – 21 November 2018) was an Indian American poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander later lived and worked in New York City, where she was a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Early life and education

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Meena Alexander was born Mary Elizabeth Alexander on 17 February 1951 in Allahabad, India, to George and Mary (Kuruvilla) Alexander,[1] originally from Travancore in India.[2][3] Her father was a meteorologist for the Indian government and her mother was a homemaker.[1] Her paternal grandmother was in an arranged marriage by age eight to her paternal grandfather, who was a wealthy landlord.[4] Her maternal grandmother, Kunju, died before Alexander was born, and had both completed higher education and been the first woman to become a member of the legislative assembly in Travancore State.[4] Her maternal grandfather was a theologian and social reformer who worked with Gandhi, and had been the principal of Marthoma Seminary in Kottayam; he gave Alexander a variety of books, and talked to her about serious topics such as mortality, the Buddha, and apocalypse, before he died when she was eleven years old.[4]

Alexander lived in Allahabad and Kerala until she was five years old, when her family moved to Khartoum after her father accepted a post in the newly independent Sudan.[1][5] She continued to visit her grandparents in Kerala, was tutored at home on speaking and writing English, and finished high school in Khartoum at age 13.[4][6] Alexander recalled to Erika Duncan of World Literature Today that she began writing poetry as a child after she tried to mentally compose short stories in Malayalam but felt unable to translate them into written English; without an ability to write in Malayalam, she instead began writing her stories as poems.[4]

She enrolled in Khartoum University at age 13, and had some poems she wrote translated into Arabic (a language she could not read)[4] and then published in a local newspaper.[7][5] At age 15, she officially changed her name from Mary Elizabeth to Meena, the name she had been called at home.[7][8] In 1969, she completed a bachelor's degree in English and French from Khartoum University.[1] She began her PhD at age 18 in England.[5] In 1970, at age 19, she had what she described as "the time-honored tradition of a young intellectual ... having a nervous breakdown", where for more than a month she lost the ability to read and retreated to the country to rest.[9][4] She completed her PhD in British Romantic literature in 1973 at age 22 from University of Nottingham.[1][10]

After completing her PhD, Alexander returned to India, and was a lecturer in the English Department at Miranda House, University of Delhi in 1974, a lecturer in English and French at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1975, a lecturer in English at the Central Institute of English at the University of Hyderabad, from 1975 to 1977, during the National Emergency in India,[11][7] and a lecturer at the University of Hyderabad from 1977 to 1979.[12] She published her first volumes of poetry in India through the Kolkata Writers Workshop,[7] a publisher founded by P. Lal, a poet and professor of English at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata.[11] She also met David Lelyveld, a historian on sabbatical from the University of Minnesota, while they were in Hyderabad, and they married in 1979.[7][1] She then moved with her husband to New York City.[1][5] In 2009, she reflected on her move to the United States in the late 1970s, stating "There was a whole issue of racism that shocked me out of my wits. I never thought of myself as a person of color. I was normally the majority where I lived."[13]

Career

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Alexander wrote poetry, prose, and scholarly works in English.[8] Ranjit Hoskote said of her poetry, "Her language drew as much on English as it did on Hindi and Malayalam – I always heard, in her poems, patterns of breath that seemed to come from sources in Gangetic India, where she spent part of her childhood, and her ancestral Malabar."[14] Alexander spoke Malayalam fluently, but her ability to read and write in Malayalam was limited.[15] She also spoke French, Sudanese Arabic and Hindi.[14] While she lived in Khartoum, she had been taught to speak and write British English;[8] in 2006, she told Ruth Maxey, "When I came to America, I found the language amazingly liberating. It was very exciting for me to hear American English, not that I can speak it well, but I think in it."[15] In her 1992 essay, "Is there an Asian American Aesthetic?", she wrote of an "aesthetic of dislocation" as one aspect of the aesthetic, and "the other is that we have all come under the sign of America. [...] Here we are part of a minority, and the vision of being 'unselved' comes into our consciousness. It is from this consciousness that I create my work of art."[16]

After moving to New York, Alexander was an assistant professor at Fordham University from 1980 until 1987, when she became an assistant professor in the English Department at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY).[12][17] She became an associate professor in 1989, and a professor in 1992.[12] Beginning in 1990, she also became a lecturer in writing at Columbia University.[12] She was appointed Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College[18] in 1999.[12]

Some of her best known poetry collections include Illiterate Heart (2002).[1] She also wrote the collection Raw Silk (2004), which includes a set of poems that relate to the September 11 attacks and the time afterwards.[19] In her 1986 collection House of a Thousand Doors: Poems and Prose Pieces, she republished several poems from her early works and her 1980 collection Stone Roots, as well as work previously published in journals in addition to new material.[6][20] Alexander wrote two further books with poetry and prose: The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience published in 1996,[20] and Poetics of Dislocation published in 2009.[citation needed]

Alexander also published two novels, Nampally Road (1991), which was a Village Voice Literary Supplement Editor's Choice in 1991,[21] and Manhattan Music (1997), as well as two academic studies: The Poetic Self: Towards a Phenomenology of Romanticism (1979), based on her dissertation,[6] and Women in Romanticism: Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Shelley (1989).[11] In 1993, Alexander published her autobiographical memoir, Fault Lines, and published an expanded second edition in 2003, with new material that addressed her previously-suppressed memories of childhood sexual abuse by her maternal grandfather and her reflections on the September 11 attacks.[22][10] She also edited Indian Love Poems (2005) and Name Me A Word: Indian Writers Reflect on Writing (2018).[23] Some of her poetry was adapted into music, including her poems "Impossible Grace"[24] and "Acqua Alta".[25] Her work was the subject of critical analysis in the book Passage to Manhattan: Critical Essays on Meena Alexander, edited by Lopamudra Basu and Cynthia Leenerts and published in 2009.[1][11]

Alexander read her poetry and spoke at a variety of literary forums, including Poetry International (London), Struga Poetry Evenings, Poetry Africa, Calabash Festival, Harbor Front Festival, and Sahitya Akademi.[25] In 2013, she addressed the Yale Political Union, in a speech titled, "What Use Is Poetry?",[7][8][26] which was later published in slightly revised form in World Literature Today.[27] In 1998 she was a Member of the Jury for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.[21] She served as an Elector, American Poets' Corner, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York.[25]

She died in New York on 21 November 2018, at the age of 67,[28] and according to her husband, the cause was endometrial serous cancer.[1] In 2020, her poetry collection In Praise of Fragments was published, which includes some work previously published in journals or staged as performances, as well as new material.[29]

Influences

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Influences on her writing include Jayanta Mahapatra,[6] Kamala Das, Adrienne Rich, Walt Whitman, and Galway Kinnell,[30] as well as Toru Dutt, Lalithambika Antherjanam, Sarojini Naidu, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, Leslie Marmon Silko, Assia Djebar, Edouard Glissant, Nawal El Saadawi, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.[7] In 2014, she discussed the influence of John Donne, John Berryman, Emily Dickinson, and Matsuo Bashō on her poetic work.[31]

Fellowships and residencies

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During the course of her career, Alexander was a University Grants Commission Fellow at Kerala University, Writer in Residence at the National University of Singapore, and a Frances Wayland Collegium Lecturer at Brown University.[25] She also held the Martha Walsh Pulver Residency for a poet at Yaddo.[25] In addition:

Honors and awards

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Fault Lines, her memoir,[37] was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Books of 1993, and her poetry collection Illiterate Heart won the 2002 PEN Open Book Award.[15][38] In 2002, she was awarded the Imbongi Yesizwe Poetry International Award.[12] She was the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award from the South Asian Literary Association for contributions to American literature.[7][36] In 2016, she received a Word Masala award from the Word Masala Foundation.[39][40] On 1 May 2024, she was honored with a Google Doodle, in honor of it being the first day of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.[41]

Selected works

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Poetry

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Early work

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  • The Bird’s Bright Ring (1976) (long poem)
  • I Root My Name (Calcutta: United Writers, 1977) (collection)
  • Without Place (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1977) (long poem)
  • In the Middle Earth (New Delhi: Enact, 1977) (performance piece)[25]

Collections

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  • Alexander, Meena (1981). Stone Roots. Arnold-Heinemann, India. ISBN 978-0862491093.
  • Alexander, Meena (1988). House of a Thousand Doors: Poems and Prose Pieces. Three Continents Press. ISBN 9780894105548.[6][42]
  • Alexander, Meena (1996). River and Bridge. TSAR Publications. ISBN 978-0920661567.[43]
  • Alexander, Meena (2002). Illiterate Heart. TriQuarterly. ISBN 978-0810151178.[44][45][46]
  • Alexander, Meena (2004). Raw Silk. TriQuarterly. ISBN 978-0810151567.[47]
  • Alexander, Meena (2008). Quickly Changing River. TriQuarterly. ISBN 978-0810124509.[48]
  • Alexander, Meena (2013). Birthplace with Buried Stones. TriQuarterly/ Northwestern University. ISBN 978-0-8101-5239-7.[49][31]
  • Alexander, Meena (2018). Atmospheric Embroidery. TriQuarterly. ISBN 978-0810137608.[50]
  • Alexander, Meena (2020). In Praise of Fragments. Nightboat Books. ISBN 978-1643620121.

Chapbooks

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  • Alexander, Meena (1989). The Storm: A Poem in Five Parts. New York: Red Dust. ISBN 9780873760621.
  • Alexander, Meena (1992). Night-Scene, the Garden. New York: Red Dust. ISBN 978-0873760744.[51]
  • Alexander, Meena (2011). Otto poesie da «Quickly changing river» (in Italian). Translated by Fazzini, Marco. Sinopia di Venezia. ISBN 9788895495330.[52]
  • Impossible Grace: Jerusalem Poems (Al-Quds University, 2012)[24]
  • Shimla (2012)
  • Alexander, Meena (2015). Dreaming in Shimla: Letter to my Mother. Indian Institute of Advanced Study. ISBN 978-9382396314.[25]

Critical reception

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Alexander was described as "undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary times" in 2015 by The Statesman.[2] About her work, Maxine Hong Kingston said: "Meena Alexander sings of countries, foreign and familiar, places where the heart and spirit live, and places for which one needs a passport and visas. Her voice guides us far away and back home. The reader sees her visions and remembers and is uplifted."[30] Of the poems in her book Atmospheric Embroidery, A. E. Stallings wrote: "Alexander's language is precise, her syntax is pellucid, and her poems address all of the senses, offering a simultaneous richness and simplicity." Vijay Seshadri wrote: "The beautiful paradox of Meena Alexander’s art has always been found in the distillation of her epic human and spiritual experience into pure and exquisite lyricism. That paradox and that lyricism are on triumphant display in this book."[53] As to the anthology she edited, Name Me A Word: Indian Writers Reflect on Writing, Simon Gikandi wrote: "Name Me A Word is an indispensable guide for readers of Indian writing, animating the powerful impulses of the country's famous writers and introducing the multiple voices that went into the making of the most important literature of our time."[54]

Critical studies of Alexander's work

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Personal life

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At the time of her death, Alexander was survived by her mother, her husband, their children Adam Lelyveld and Svati Lelyveld, and her sister Elizabeth Alexander.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Genzlinger, Neil (26 November 2018). "Meena Alexander, Poet Who Wrote of Dislocation, Dies at 67". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b "'Writing a poem is itself an act of hope' - The Statesman". The Statesman. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  3. ^ Ponzanesi, Sandra. "Alexander, Meena." In Lorna Sage, Germaine Greer, and Elaine Showalter (eds), The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge, 1999. 10. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 February 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Duncan, Erika (1999). "A Portrait of Meena Alexander". World Literature Today. 73 (1): 23–28. doi:10.2307/40154471. JSTOR 40154471.
  5. ^ a b c d "Meena Alexander: Life Events". BBC. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e Perry, John Oliver (Winter 1986). "Exiled By A Woman's Body: Substantial Phenomena in Meena Alexander's Poetry". Journal of South Asian Literature. 21 (1): 125–132. JSTOR 40872843.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Basu, Lopamudra (24 November 2018). "Meena Alexander (1951-2018): The poet from India who lived and wrote with sensitivity for the world". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d Valladares, Michelle Yasmine (Spring 2019). "Remembering Meena Alexander". WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly. 47 (1): 279–286. doi:10.1353/wsq.2019.0029. S2CID 145938659. Project MUSE 722010.
  9. ^ Howe, Florence; Stanton, Domna C.; Robinson, Lillian S.; McKay, Nellie; Stimpson, Catharine R.; Alexander, Meena; Morgan, Robin; Hedges, Elaine; Ferguson, Mary Anne; Arenal, Electa; Wilson, J. J.; Tharu, Susie (Fall 1991). "Books That Changed Our Lives". Women's Studies Quarterly. 19 (3): 15–17. JSTOR 40003298.
  10. ^ a b Shankar, Lavina (2008). "Re-Visioning Memoirs Old and New: A Conversation with Meena Alexander". Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. 8 (2): 32–48. Project MUSE 242230.
  11. ^ a b c d Roy, Souradeep (9 December 2018). "A Poet at the Crossroad: Tribute to Meena Alexander". The Wire. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Meena Alexander". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. 28 November 2018. Gale H1000001213.
  13. ^ "Profile: Poet Meena Alexander". The City University of New York. Winter 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  14. ^ a b The Wire Staff (22 November 2018). "'The Angels Will Call on Me' – Meena Alexander, Indian-American Poet, Dies at 67". The Wire. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  15. ^ a b c Maxey, Ruth (Winter 2006). "An Interview with Meena Alexander". The Kenyon Review. 28 (1). Retrieved 27 September 2021.[permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ Katrak, Ketu H. (February 2002). "The Aesthetics of Dislocation: Writing the Hybrid Lives of South Asian Americans". The Women's Review of Books. 19 (5): 5–6. doi:10.2307/4023785. JSTOR 4023785.
  17. ^ Harris, Elizabeth A. (4 June 2017). "How CUNY Became Poetry U". The New York Times. Gale A494210535.
  18. ^ "Meena Alexander". Faculty by Field. The Graduate Center, CUNY. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  19. ^ Gioseffi, Daniela (January 2006). "In the Mercy of Time-Flute Music: An Interview with Meena Alexander". World Literature Today. 80 (1): 46–48. doi:10.2307/40159031. JSTOR 40159031.
  20. ^ a b Malieckal, Bindu (Winter 1999). "Review of The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience by Meena Alexander". MELUS. 24 (4): 192–194. doi:10.2307/468186. JSTOR 468186.
  21. ^ a b Clark, David Draper (Winter 1998). "The 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature: Jurors and Candidates". World Literature Today. 72 (1): 67–78. doi:10.2307/40153536. JSTOR 40153536.
  22. ^ Maxey, Ruth; Alexander, Meena (Summer 2006). "Interview: Meena Alexander". MELUS. 31 (2): 21–39. doi:10.1093/melus/31.2.21. JSTOR 30029661.
  23. ^ Daruwalla, Keki N. (8 December 2018). "In memory of poet Meena Alexander". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  24. ^ a b "Faculty Member's Poem to Inspire Winning Composition". News. The Graduate Center, CUNY. 27 August 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g "Meena Alexander - Biography". CUNY Academic Commons. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  26. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (12 September 2013). "Poetry Isn't as Useless as a Lot of Poets Say It Is". The Atlantic. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  27. ^ Alexander, Meena (September 2013). "What Use Is Poetry?". World Literature Today. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  28. ^ "Memory is all you have". The Indian Express. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  29. ^ Peeradina, Saleem (Spring 2020). "In Praise of Fragments by Meena Alexander". World Literature Today. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  30. ^ a b "Meena Alexander 1951–2018". Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  31. ^ a b Vanasco, Jeannie (16 July 2014). "Journeys". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  32. ^ "Meena Alexander (1951 - 2018)". Asian American Studies Program. Hunter College. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  33. ^ Handal, Nathalie (18 December 2013). "The City and the Writer: In New York City with Meena Alexander". Words Without Borders. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  34. ^ "Guggenheim Foundation Fellows". Archived from the original on 11 February 2009.
  35. ^ "Distinguished Professor Meena Alexander Receives Fulbright Specialists Award". Hunter College. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  36. ^ a b Scroll Staff (22 November 2018). "Poet, essayist Meena Alexander dies at 67". Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  37. ^ "Fault Lines: A Memoir". Kirkus Reviews. 1 February 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  38. ^ "The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience". Publishers Weekly. 28 June 1999. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  39. ^ Chatterjee, Debjani (14 July 2016). "Milestone for Indian diaspora poets". The Hindu. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  40. ^ "Meena Alexander receives Word Masala Award and reads poems in the House of Lords on 22nd June 2016". Yogesh Patel. YouTube. 24 October 2017. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  41. ^ "Google celebrates poet Meena Alexander with a Doodle - UPI.com". UPI.
  42. ^ Rustomji-Kerns, Roshni (Fall 1991). "Review of House of a Thousand Doors by Meena Alexander". Journal of South Asian Literature. 26 (1): 370–378. JSTOR 40873262.
  43. ^ Perry, John Oliver (1997). "Review of River and Bridge by Meena Alexander". World Literature Today. 71 (4): 867–868. doi:10.2307/40153494. JSTOR 40153494.
  44. ^ Basu, Lopamudra (Fall 2002). "The Poet in the Public Sphere: A Conversation with Meena Alexander". Social Text. 20 (3). Duke University Press: 31–38. doi:10.1215/01642472-20-3_72-31. S2CID 143254134. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  45. ^ Swain, Rabindra K (March 2004). "Review of Illiterate Heart by Meena Alexander". Indian Literature. 48 (2): 202–207. JSTOR 23341284.
  46. ^ Sharma, Prageeta (July 2002). "Review: Illiterate Heart: Where Translations Perish". The Women's Review of Books. 19 (10): 9. doi:10.2307/4023875. JSTOR 4023875.
  47. ^ Pope, Jacquelyn (2005). "Review of Raw Silk by Meena Alexander". Harvard Review. 28: 166–167. JSTOR 27569029.
  48. ^ Subramaniam, Arundhathi (6 May 2008). "Meena Alexander". India - Poetry International Web. Poetry International. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  49. ^ "Birthplace with Buried Stones". Publishers Weekly. 23 December 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  50. ^ Bugan, Carmen (11 April 2019). "Review of Atmospheric Embroidery". Harvard Review Online. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  51. ^ King, Bruce (Spring 1993). "Review of Night-Scene, the Garden by Meena Alexander". World Literature Today. 67 (2): 444. doi:10.2307/40149305. JSTOR 40149305.
  52. ^ "Faculty Book: Meena Alexander". Women's and Gender Studies. The Graduate Center, CUNY. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  53. ^ "Atmospheric Embroidery". nupress.northwestern.edu. Northwestern University Press. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  54. ^ Name Me a Word: Indian Writers Reflect on Writing. Yale University Press. 24 July 2018. ISBN 978-0300222586.

Further reading

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  • Ali, Zainab, and Dharini Rashish. "Meena Alexander." In Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers. Ed. King-Kok Cheung. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, with UCLA Asian American Studies Center; 2000. 69–91.
  • Poddar, Prem. "Questions of Location: A Conversation with Meena Alexander." HIMAL South Asia 14.1 (January 2001).[permanent dead link‍]
  • Tabios, Eileen. "Gold Horizon: Interview with Meena Alexander." In Black Lightning: Poetry in Progress. Ed. Eileen Tabios. New York: Asian American Writers Workshop, 1998. 196––226.
  • Young, Jeffrey. "Creating a Life through Literature." Chronicle of Higher Education (14 March 1997): B8.
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