 |  being a woman writer
Meena Alexander believes that men and women cannot write the same way because of their different experiences of life...
"Life as it comes to me comes to me in a female body - so all the truths of my experience are female truths. I mean I'm a writer just as anyone is a writer, male or female, but the most intimate hum and flow and buzz of my body - just things like what it means to wear a sari in a certain way, what it means to give birth, what it means to menstruate, all of these are parts of the rhythm of my bodily life which is female. Coupled with fact that, being raised as a girl child, I was taught very clearly that I wasn't meant to write, wasn't meant to expose certain kinds of experiences because that's not the sort of thing a woman did, so that was something else I had to struggle with but I think in the end it makes you stronger."
Meena Alexander
For a woman, talking about yourself was not appropriate, but as a writer, her story was at the heart of her writing. As both a woman and a migrant, Alexander has a need to break the silence and make sure that her voice is heard. She describes how the process of writing can give her a kind of identity, can make sense of her past and give her life meaning:
 It is the pain of no-one knowing my name
Links
Meena Alexander Biography and Links
Asian Women Writers Site
Biography, Poetry and Critical Analysis
Post Colonial Studies at Emory University
Poetry by Meena Alexander
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|   | | life events | | | | key influences and themes | | | | Alexander's work | | | | style | | | | the next chapter | |  | | being a woman writer | | | | Women Writers | | | | Ama Ata Aidoo | | | | Meena Alexander | | | | Maya Angelou | | | | Shashi Deshpande | | | | Margaret Drabble | | | | Buchi Emecheta | | | | Jamaica Kincaid | | | | Doris Lessing | | | | Bharati Mukherjee | | | | Michele Roberts | | | | Helen Simpson | |
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