Nationality 1: Indian

Nationality 2: American

Birthdate: 1962

Deathdate: 2003

Reetika Vazirani was a prize-winning poet who died tragically at the age of forty. In 2003, the year Vazirani died, the second of her two collections, World Hotel (2002), in which the poem “Daughter-Mother-Maya-Seeta” appears, received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Vazirani was born in Patiala, Punjab, India on August 9, 1962, but her parents immigrated to the United States in 1968. She grew up in Maryland and, as a child, took ballet lessons and ran on her high school track team. Vazirani attended Wellesley College for her undergraduate degree and then the University of Virginia, where she earned a master of fine arts degree. After graduate school, Vazirani taught creative writing at various schools, including the University of Virginia, Sweet Briar College, and the University of Oregon.

Vazirani's father had wanted his daughter to become a physician, but Vazirani found that her passions pulled her...