Professional Bio

Anjali Banerjee was born in India, raised in Canada and California and received degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. When she was seven, she wrote her first story about an abandoned puppy on a beach in Bengal.

The Philadelphia Inquirer called her debut young adult novel, Maya Running (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) “beautiful and complex” and “pleasingly accessible.” The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books called the book “eloquently composed” and “insightfully written.” Maya Running was on the Chicago Public Library’s ”Best of the Best” list of children’s novels published in 2005 and the New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age 2006” list. Penguin Books India published Maya Running on the Indian subcontinent and in Singapore. India Today Book Club, India’s biggest book club, chose Maya Running as a “Pick of the Season,” and the novel received accolades in major Indian publications, including INDOlink, The Hindustan Times and Deccan Chronicle. Film rights for Maya Running were sold to Intrepid Film Arts Inc. and MediaBrat Inc.

Horn Book Magazine called Anjali’s second novel for children, Looking for Bapu (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) ”a moving story about surviving an unexpected, shocking loss;” Booklist called the book “imaginative,” “hilarious” and “an excellent read aloud”; and The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “sophisticated and very likable.” Of the many elements in the novel–generational differences, friendship, religion, and grief immediately post-9/11—Mary Harris Russell of The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Banerjee deftly keeps all this in balance. We never lose sight of either the serious issues—the family’s loss and love—or the comedic ones.” King County Library System chose Looking for Bapu as one of the Best Books of 2006; Seattle Public Library included the book on its “2006 Books for Giving” list. Looking for Bapu was also nominated for two state library awards: Hawaii’s 2008 Nene Award, and Washington State’s 2009 Sasquatch Reading Award. Looking for Bapu was on the 2009 Global Reading Challenge lists for the Seattle Public Library, the King County Library System, the Fraser Valley Regional Library System (in British Columbia, Canada), and the Kalamazoo Public Library System in Michigan. Looking for Bapu is also on the Hong Kong 2009-2010 Battle of the Books reading list. The paperback was released in September 2008.

Anjali is also the author of two middle grade paperbacks published by Mirrorstone Books: The Silver Spell and Rani and the Fashion Divas. Her next middle grade novel, Seaglass Summer, will be released by Wendy Lamb Books/Random House May 11, 2010.

Anjali’s first novel for adults, Imaginary Men (Downtown Press/Pocket Books) was chosen as a Book Sense Notable Book. The Seattle Times called Imaginary Men “a romantic comedy equal to Bend it Like Beckham”; Booklist called it “charming” and “fairytale-like”; Publishers Weekly called it a “fun debut...a Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Monsoon Wedding-style escapade.” RT BOOKreviews magazine called Anjali’s second novel for adults, Invisible Lives, “magical” and “joyful,” and The Seattle Times called it “poignant” and “surprising.” Droemer-Knaur released Invisible Lives in Germany as Der Hochzeitssari (The Wedding Sari) in early 2009, and will release Imaginary Men as Die Herzleserin in early 2010. Anjali’s next women’s fiction novel will be published by the Penguin Group. Stay tuned for more details.

Anjali’s Pushcart Prize-nominated short fiction has appeared in several literary journals including Writing for Our Lives (twice), Lynx Eye (twice), Möbius: The Journal of Social Change, Nerve, Elements and the University of Baltimore’s Passager: A Journal of Remembrance and Discovery, and in the anthology New to North America: Writing by Immigrants, Their Children and Grandchildren. Her short story “Satin and Lace” is used as a model story in Skagit Valley College classes and in workshops at the Whidbey Island Writers’ Conference; and “Goddess of Learning” and Anjali’s novel, Imaginary Men, are assigned reading in California college classes.

An alumnus of Hedgebrook, which is an esteemed retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, Anjali has been a speaker at the South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival (SALTAF®) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., many schools and libraries, and has led workshops for Field’s End, a Bainbridge Island, Washington-based writers’ community offering classes taught by award-winning authors. She was a contributing writer for three regional history books and local newspapers. Anjali lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and four crazy cats.