Anita Rau Badami  Anita Rau Badami (born 24 September 1961) is a writer of South Asian descent living in Canada. Born in Rourkela, Odisha, India, she was educated at the University of Madras and Sophia Polytechnic in Bombay. She emigrated to Canada in 1991, and earned an M.A. at the University of Calgary. Her first novel was "Tamarind Mem" (1997). Her novels deal with the complexities of Indian family life and with the cultural gap that emerges when Indians move to the west. Badami's third novel, "Can You Hear the Nightbird Call" explores the Golden Temple Massacre and the Air India Bombing. Badami cites as among her favourite books "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, "Cat's Eye" and "Surfacing" by Margaret Atwood, "A House for Mr Biswas" by V. S. Naipaul and "Housekeeping" by Marilynne Robinson. In 2015 Badami was writer-in-residence at Athabasca University in Edmonton. In 2016 "The Hero's Walk" was listed as one of the five finalists for the CBC Canada Reads competition. In 2017, Badami was announced as chair of the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury.