Meena Alexander was born in Allahabad, India. She has published numerous books, including two novels, Manhattan Music and Nampally Road, and a book of poems and essays, The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience. Her memoir, Fault Lines, was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 1993. The Royal Festival Hall in London commissioned a poem by her on New York for Poetry International 2002. Alexander lives in New York City, where she is a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
