Minal Hajratwala, Reading and book signing for Leaving India March 26, 2009

As the daughter of immigrants and the granddaughter of weavers, Minal Hajratwala grew up accustomed to crossing lines. In Leaving India, she weaves together history, memoir, and reportage to explore questions facing not only her own family but that of every migrant: Where did we come from? Why did we leave? What did we lose and gain? Traveling the world, she learns how her family, originally from India, came to be spread across five continents and nine countries over more than a century of migration — a movement that parallels the phenomenal growth of India’s diaspora.

Minal Hajratwala is a writer, performer, poet, and queer activist based in San Francisco, where she was born before being whisked off to be raised in New Zealand and suburban Michigan. Her creative work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and theater spaces, and has received recognition and support from the Sundance Institute, among others. She was an editor and reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, and was a fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2000-01. She is a graduate of Stanford University.

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