BORDER BOOK FESTIVAL
FEATURED WRITER AND ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

DEBJANI MUKHOPADHYAY

Born and brought up in Kolkata, India.  She is now a citizen of USA and is working at UTEP Library as an Engineering/ Reference Librarian.  She is also the wife of Dr. Somnath Mukhopadhyay (a professor of College of Business Administration, UTEP) and a proud mother of two. 

She has two  masters degrees in English Literature & Language (Kolkata University) and Library Science (Texas Woman’s University), respectively.  She also holds Sangeet Prabhakar degrees in both Indian Classical Dance and in Music.  She first performed  her dance on stage at the age of 5.  Noticing her ability to dance and sing, her mother put her in a music school for formal trainings.  Later, under the tutelage of Shrimati Shreelekha Mukhopadhyay (National Award Winner for Indian Classical Dance), Debjani earned her degree in Kathak, a North Indian classical dance form, and has since performed on several occasions. 

In India, along with her dance teacher, she has performed in Rabindra Sadan (one of the prestigious stages in Kolkata) and in America, she has performed classical as well as semi classical dances in cities of Dallas/Fort Worth, Raleigh/Durham, Atlanta, El Paso, Las Cruces, and Albuquerque.  Besides performing, she also teaches Kathak at her home in El Paso, TX. 

Her daughter, Sohini Mukhopadhyay, who is also a Kathak dancer, is among her students as well.  She is currently pursuing her third masters degree in Business Administration from College of Business Administration at UTEP.  She hopes to impart her knowledge of Kathak and Indian culture to those students who are aspiring to become performing artists someday.