In her own words:
I was born in Queens, New York City, the child of an Indo-Guyanese
father and a Jewish-American mother who met in the 1950s when my
father worked for the Indian Consulate in New York City. The community
I grew up in, which was built for U.N. families, was an oasis for
families seeking to raise their children in a multi-racial and
multicultural environment. This, along with the world of Indo-
Caribbean and Indian friends who surrounded my family, profoundly
shaped who I am and what I write about.
Marina Budhos has written fiction and nonfiction for
numerous publications, including Ploughshares,
The Kenyon Review, Dissent and elsewhere. She
was awarded a Rona Jaffe Award for Women Writers, and was a
Fullbright Scholar in India, during which she wrote about the rise
of Hindu fundamentalism in India for The Nation. She has
also covered international news for Ms., and recently
received an EMMA (Exceptional Media Merit Award) for an article about
sex tourism to Asia.
Marina Budhos lives in New York City with her husband. She can be reached
at mbudhos_at_aol.com.
- Writing & Newsclips
-
Dissent
- Asian Pacific
American Journal
- Between
autobiography and invention. Bharti Kirchner interview Budhos.
India Currents, Sep 00.
- In search
of her roots. Rediff interview.
Bibliography
- Ask Me No Questions
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, . (2005)
- What do you do when your country doesn't want you?
Deportation. Green Card. Residency. Asylum.
For fourteen-year-old Nadira and eighteen-year-old Aisha, these are the words that define their lives.
Nadira and her family are illegal aliens, fleeing to the Canadian border - running from the country they thought would one day be
their home. For years, they have lived on expired visas in New York City, hoping they can realize their dream of becoming legal
citizens of the United States. But after 9/11, everything changes. Suddenly, being Muslim means being dangerous. A suspected
terrorist. And when Nadira's father is arrested and detained at the border, she and her sister, Aisha are sent back to Queens, and
told to carry on, as if everything is the same.
But of course nothing is the same. Nadira and Aisha live in fear they'll have to return to a Bangladesh they hardly know. Aisha,
once the academic star, falls apart. Now it's up to Nadira to find a way out.
Ask Me No Questions is a searing portrait of modern America in the days of terrorism, orange alerts, and the Patriot Act. It is a story
of two sisters, one of whom must find strength to save her family.
- The first two chapters, at Marina Budhos' website.
- The Professor of Light
G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. . (1999)
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- Sawnet Review by Uma Krishnaswami, Gaiutra Bahadur
- Remix: Conversations with immigrant teenagers
Henry Holt, New York. . (1999)
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- House of Waiting
Global City Press, New York. . (1995)
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