Google celebrates poet Meena Alexander with a Doodle

May 1 (UPI) -- In honor of the first day of U.S. Asian Pacific Month, Google is honoring Indian-American poet Meena Alexander with a Doodle. The writer is known for her books of poetry, Napally Road, Illiterate Heart and Raw Silk.

Alexander was born in 1951 in Allahabad, India, and spent her youth in Sudan. Her father was a visiting meteorologist and while he was stationed there, Alexander began writing poems in English and French.

An excellent student, Alexander began college at age 13. She attended University of Khartoum and, while there, she had her first poems publish in a local newspaper. The young poet graduated with a degree in English and French. She went on to earn a doctorate in British Romantic literature. Alexander then returned to India and worked faculty jobs.

Alexander moved to New York to work at Fordham University in 1979. She started as an assistant professor and later became a distinguished professor of English at both Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Throughout this time, she kept writing poetry and her books have been translated into many languages. Alexander was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award from the South Asian Literary Association. The poet died in November 2018.

Her son, Adam Kuruvilla Lelyveld, said, "Mama was an artist and a fighter. She believed deeply in the craft of her work and the search for something akin to truth. She was brave and adventurous and joyful and sought herself in many homes, and in the art of poetry."

The Doodle, illustrated by guest artist Anjali Vakil, shows Alexander writing at her desk. Vakil said her main inspiration for the Doodle was from reading through the poet's work.

"I could just see her fiercely hunched over her writing desk, trying to catch words that could describe her nomadic life in the late hours of the night, just as I did when designing her Google Doodle," Vakil said.