Anju Kanwar

Novelist, Poet, Literary Critic

Rise Global Initiative represents a philosophy that advocates for  equity of opportunity and sustainable development. It adopts interdisciplinary and integrative pathways to break through traditional approaches that are no longer working.  Kanwar is keenly interested in finding innovative solutions for building communities through collaborative approaches between Arts/Humanities and Science/Technology.   

Kanwar has served in Higher Education in both India and the United States, and is committed to education that serves everyone in a rapidly shifting global and technological landscape. Her experience includes contributing leadership (with the responsibility, most recently, to build and operate a Federal grant-funded graduate academic support program for minority students' graduation success) and working at the front line (through teaching and mentoring). She was nominated for the Jenefer Giannasi Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshman English. Kanwar's previous work experience includes innovative program development and service for a school-based initiative (for which she received an Outstanding Service Award) and strategic plan development and execution of the relaunch of a defunct national consumer magazine. 

Kanwar supports forging new pathways to gender equality through (economic) empowerment and leadership development. Her book, The Sound of Silence, grew out of her doctoral dissertation on D.H. Lawrence. It is a literary and cultural study of attacks on unmarried women. Kanwar reads literature from an interdisciplinary socio-cultural, gender perspective: using literary/linguistic analysis and critical/psychoanalytic theories to speak of the lives of real women. Understanding the ways in which patriarchy works to disempower women, one can develop strategies for resistance and change. The book was nominated for the Independent Scholar's Award of the Modern Language Association. 

Kanwar's debut novel, The Dark Side of the Moon, follows the journey of a young woman, Amrita Chaddha, who is lamed in a communally charged  incident. Centered in Delhi over three summer months in 1985, the crisis is both psychological and real. The struggle reveals all sorts of secret wounds in the families beyond, the holocaust of the 1947 India Partition, the choices made. The Dark Side of the Moon, at its heart, uses the kaleidoscope of memory to frame love and home. 

Kanwar has also written the Introduction to the Barnes and Noble edition of D.H. Lawrence's novel, The Lost Girl. She explores her nuanced (by intersectionality) and diverse interests (including global health and wellbeing, environmental, and migration issues) through both academic and creative writing.  Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation, Indian Literature, Amsterdam Quarterly, Stonepile Writers' Anthology, etc. 

Kanwar believes passionately in the power of  words to transform lives. She has given talks at local organizations, and made numerous national and international academic presentations and public readings of her fiction and poetry. She opened the Atlanta premiere (and fundraiser) of the BBC documentary, India's Daughter, with her poetry. She has received the Arnold B. Fox Essay Award (special reference), the 2018 Loquat Literary Award (third) in Poetry and the 2020 Creators of Justice Literary Award (third) in Poetry.

Kanwar earned a Bachelor's in English (Hons) from Jesus and Mary College of the University of Delhi and a Master's in English from the Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi.  She received her PhD on a full teaching scholarship from Northern Illinois University, where she majored in English Literature (and culture) with an emphasis on narrative and gender. (Here she became the first international student to be elected President of the English Graduate Students Association, starting and supporting numerous initiatives for graduate student representation and advancement.) Kanwar has since availed of numerous professional development opportunities, including, most recently, "Poetry and Training the Eye" at Harvard Medical School.