Bharati Mukherjee is the author of 7 novels (including Jasmine, Desirable Daughters, and The Tree Bride); two short story collections (including the prize-winning The Middleman & Other Stories); and co-author, with Clark Blaise, of two books of non-fiction (including Days & Nights in Calcutta.) She has received the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Best Fiction as well grants from The Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.