Meenakshi Chakraverti is a writer, consultant, and anthropologist, who went through her schooling in India and came to the United States to go to college. She worked for many years as an economist, and then as a reputed practitioner in the fields of conflict resolution and leadership development. With degrees from Princeton University (MPA, economics) and Cornell University (PhD, social anthropology), Meenakshi has taught at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University, and directed the Leadership Institute at the University of San Diego. She conducted her doctoral fieldwork in the Massif Central, in the heart of France. She has published occasional non-fiction pieces, including opinion pieces in The Christian Science Monitor, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and PoliticsMeansPolitics.Com, an online weekly produced by Medium.Com. Meenakshi attended the fiction workshop at Under the Volcano in Tepoztlán, Mexico in 2017. In 2019, she was a writer/artist in residence at Djerassi in northern California. In the summer of 2021, she was a writer/artist in residence at I-Park in Connecticut. She loves long-boarding in Riverside Park, scuba diving in warm water, dancing awkwardly, and being opinionated about contemporary art and culture. She has two grown daughters, and lives in New York City.
What I’m reading (apart from obsessive news/political junkie reading online, the occasional literary magazine, and research for Pretty Lights)
(not updated)
February 2017
-- Freedom Song (Amit Chaudhuri)
-- Kindred (Octavia Butler)
-- No Day of Triumph (J. Saunders Redding)
-- Geek Sublime (Vikram Chandra)
-- Forest Primeval (Vievee Francis)
-- Poetry (January 2017 issue)
March 2017
-- Dark Matter and Dinosaurs (Lisa Randall)
-- House of Lords and Commons (Ishion Hutchinson)
-- Exit West (Mohsin Hamid)
-- Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
April 2017
Still working through the February and March lists.
And added to the pile:
-- A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories (Flannery O’Connor)
-- Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
-- Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
May 2017
-- White Tears (Hari Kunzru)
-- Fallout (Sara Paretsky)
-- Beloved (Toni Morrison)
-- Barbarian Days (William Finnegan)
June 2017
Trying to get caught up.
July 2017
-- Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
-- A Tale of Love and Darkness (Amos Oz)
August 2017
-- Void Star (Zachary Mason)
-- Moon Tiger (Penelope Lively)
-- Mural (Mahmoud Darwish)
September 2017
Catching up!
October 2017
-- Fast (Jorie Graham)
-- Adults in the Room (Yanis Varoufakis)
November 2017
Catching up, always catching up!
December 2017
Still catching up...
January 2018
-- The Return (Dany Laferrière)
-- how to be both (Ali Smith)
-- Other Russias (Victoria Lomasko)
February 2018
-- Amalgamemnon (Christine Brooke-Rose)
-- The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
Didn’t read much while moving from San Diego to New York City
July 2018
-- Black Novel (with Argentines) (Luisa Valenzuela)
August 2018
-- Salvage the Bones (Jesmyn Ward)
September 2018
-- Transit (Anna Seghers)
October 2018
Catching up...
November 2018
-- Men in the Off Hours (Anne Carson)
-- Regarding the Pain of Others (Susan Sontag)
-- Akhmatova Poems (Anna Akhmatova)
December 2018
-- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (the original manga) (Hayao Miyazaki)
January 2019
-- Vinnie, a love letter (R. Preston Clark)
February 2019
-- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
March 2019
-- An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)
April 2019
Catching up ...
May 2019
-- Maximum City (Suketu Mehta)
-- Insurrecto (Gina Apostol)
June-December 2019 (not necessarily in this order)
-- Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)
-- The Chameleon Couch (Yousef Komunyakaa)
-- Shell Game (Sara Paretsky)
-- Talking Back (bell hooks)
-- The Atlas of Reds and Blues (Devi Laskar)
-- One Part Woman (Perumal Murugan)
-- Beloved (Toni Morrison)
-- Native Voices (ed. CMarie Furman, Dean Rader)
-- Suite for Barbara Loden (Nathalie Léger)
-- The Sportswriter (Richard Ford)
-- The Friend (Sigrid Nunez)
-- Sonata Mulattica (Rita Dove)
-- American Sublime (Elizabeth Alexander)
What I’m reading (apart from obsessive news/political junkie reading online, the occasional literary magazine, and research for Pretty Lights)
(not updated)
February 2017
-- Freedom Song (Amit Chaudhuri)
-- Kindred (Octavia Butler)
-- No Day of Triumph (J. Saunders Redding)
-- Geek Sublime (Vikram Chandra)
-- Forest Primeval (Vievee Francis)
-- Poetry (January 2017 issue)
March 2017
-- Dark Matter and Dinosaurs (Lisa Randall)
-- House of Lords and Commons (Ishion Hutchinson)
-- Exit West (Mohsin Hamid)
-- Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
April 2017
Still working through the February and March lists.
And added to the pile:
-- A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories (Flannery O’Connor)
-- Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)
-- Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates)
May 2017
-- White Tears (Hari Kunzru)
-- Fallout (Sara Paretsky)
-- Beloved (Toni Morrison)
-- Barbarian Days (William Finnegan)
June 2017
Trying to get caught up.
July 2017
-- Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
-- A Tale of Love and Darkness (Amos Oz)
August 2017
-- Void Star (Zachary Mason)
-- Moon Tiger (Penelope Lively)
-- Mural (Mahmoud Darwish)
September 2017
Catching up!
October 2017
-- Fast (Jorie Graham)
-- Adults in the Room (Yanis Varoufakis)
November 2017
Catching up, always catching up!
December 2017
Still catching up...
January 2018
-- The Return (Dany Laferrière)
-- how to be both (Ali Smith)
-- Other Russias (Victoria Lomasko)
February 2018
-- Amalgamemnon (Christine Brooke-Rose)
-- The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
Didn’t read much while moving from San Diego to New York City
July 2018
-- Black Novel (with Argentines) (Luisa Valenzuela)
August 2018
-- Salvage the Bones (Jesmyn Ward)
September 2018
-- Transit (Anna Seghers)
October 2018
Catching up...
November 2018
-- Men in the Off Hours (Anne Carson)
-- Regarding the Pain of Others (Susan Sontag)
-- Akhmatova Poems (Anna Akhmatova)
December 2018
-- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (the original manga) (Hayao Miyazaki)
January 2019
-- Vinnie, a love letter (R. Preston Clark)
February 2019
-- Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
March 2019
-- An American Marriage (Tayari Jones)
April 2019
Catching up ...
May 2019
-- Maximum City (Suketu Mehta)
-- Insurrecto (Gina Apostol)
June-December 2019 (not necessarily in this order)
-- Autobiography of Red (Anne Carson)
-- The Chameleon Couch (Yousef Komunyakaa)
-- Shell Game (Sara Paretsky)
-- Talking Back (bell hooks)
-- The Atlas of Reds and Blues (Devi Laskar)
-- One Part Woman (Perumal Murugan)
-- Beloved (Toni Morrison)
-- Native Voices (ed. CMarie Furman, Dean Rader)
-- Suite for Barbara Loden (Nathalie Léger)
-- The Sportswriter (Richard Ford)
-- The Friend (Sigrid Nunez)
-- Sonata Mulattica (Rita Dove)
-- American Sublime (Elizabeth Alexander)