Meena Alexander (1951 - 2018) was born in Allahabad, India. She was raised both in Kerala, South India and in Khartoum, Sudan. Her many books include Illiterate Heart, The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience, In Praise of Fragments, and the critically acclaimed memoir Fault Lines.

Alexander was the recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award in Literature from the South Asian Literary Association for contributions to American literature. In 2014, Meena Alexander was named a National Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. She was Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at the City University of New York and taught in the PhD Program in English at CUNY Graduate Center and in the English Department at Hunter College.