Desert in Bloom: Contemporary Indian Women’s Fiction in English
Edited by  Meenakshi Bharat

This volume investigates the tremendous contemporary spurt in the literary creativity of ‘women writers’ in Indian English Fiction. Demonstrating that fictional creation is no ‘male territory’ and women are no ‘trespassers’ in it, the contributors to this study, both discerning critics and major fictionists, scrutinize and evaluate the diverse, inter-related aspects of women’s fiction. The volume meticulously brings together the voices of these persistent and determined Sheherzades, too significant to miss or ignore, in a wide-ranging selection of perceptive essays, written in jargon-free and refreshing prose.
 
Meenakshi Bharat is Reader in English at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. She is a translator, reviewer and critic. Her other critical interests include Children’s literature, Women’s fiction and English studies, areas in which she has done extensive research. Her book The Ultimate Colony: The Child in Postcolonial Fiction has just been released. She is currently engaged in the translation of a volume of Hindi short stories.
 
Contributors : Radha Chakravarty, Jasbir Jain, Anne Collette, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Anjana Sharma, Yasmine Gooneratne, Meeta Chatterjee, Vibha S. Chauhan, Meenakshi Mukherjee, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Sharon Rundle, Nayantara Sahgal, Githa Hariharan, Manju Kak, Neelum Saran Gour, Sujata Sankranti and Susan Viswanathan.
 
 
ISBN 81-85753-59-8           2004           240 pp           Rs.450 (hb)
 
 
Explorations that tease out the nuances of language and technique as well as the incisive and profound meditations on writing fiction offered by South Asian women authors themselves… for anyone serious about the study of South Asian women’s literature, Desert in Bloom is certainly a must.
World Literature Today, U.S.A.