Meena Alexander, Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is the author of several books of poetry, most recently" Raw Silk" and "Illiterate Heart," winner of a 2002 PEN Open Book Award. Her memoir "Fault Lines" was one of "Publishers Weekly"'s best books of 1993, and her novel "Nampally Road" was a 1991 "Voice Literary Supplement" Editor's Choice.