Chitra Divakaruni at Book People
At Chitra Divakaruni’s reading in Austin January 28, Book People’s reading room was packed to the gills and 45 copies of her book Sister of My Heart were sold. Selling 45 copies didn’t deplete Book People’s stock of the title, but considering that Divakaruni is perfectly aware of the perils literary authors face in the contemporary publishing world, a packed reading and 45 copies sold is an unmitigated success. And it’s evidence that during her 18-city book tour, Divakaruni may not need to be thinking about the generally sad state of the literary author in the contemporary publishing world.
But she has thought about it. And one solution, this creative writing teacher at the University of Houston says, is for creative writing teachers to begin assigning living authors, authors who comment on the world in which students live. That might not institute a sea change in reading habits, but it is a step in the right direction. Divakaruni doesn’t blush or lower her voice when she uses the word “multiculturalism,” and she is avowedly devoted to reading authors who comment on worlds and cultures with which she is unfamiliar. “It doesn’t have to be either/or,” she says about that dead white male/present-day writer schism; this semester in her Poetic Forms class, she assigned Yeats as well as living poets.
Divakaruni says she’s happy with her publisher, Doubleday, she loves being a mother, teacher, poet and writer, and a wife to her husband, who works on alternative energy sources for a Houston oil company: All is well. There are telling fissures in that composite image, though, that reveal something of the writer at work. Sometimes, it’s hard to stop writing when the end of the writing day comes and it’s time to pick up her two boys from school. At times, the writing doesn’t come all that easy. For Divakaruni, a day spent not writing is far worse than one spent struggling for the next word, phrase, and scene, which are evocative and deeply felt in Sister of My Heart. —Clay Smith
This article appears in February 5 • 1999 and February 5 • 1999 (Cover).