#BornConfused15, its anniversary celebration, included tributes by acclaimed authors for whom the novel was a vital part of their own writing path. This year, Born Confused was included in Best Asian-American Books in both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Public Library’s Recommended Reads. “Spellbinding,” says The Independent on Sunday. Born Confused is a Sunday Times (Times of London) Book of the Week (“ romantic, absorbing, thoughtful and original, this is a book to lose yourself in”) a Financial Times Magazine Best of Summer Tales pick ( “ a stunning debut… an exhilarating read”) a Top Five pick in The Observer and a year’s Finest Teen Fiction pick in The Scotsman. The book received numerous starred reviews, including from Publishers Weekly (“absorbing and intoxicating, this book is sure to leave a lasting impression”) and Kirkus (“a breathtaking experience beyond virtually anything being published for teens today”). USA Today commends the novel as “compelling and witty…gives voice to a new generation of Americans…a rare and daring portrayal.” “Seminal”, says The Atlantic. Her pioneering debut BORN CONFUSED, considered to be the first South Asian American YA novel, was named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and hailed by Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone Magazine, Sugarscape, and Paste as a Best YA Novel of all time, on lists including such classics as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, Little Women, Harry Potter, and Huckleberry Finn. She is recipient of the 2020 SCBWI/Jane Yolen Grant, the 2015 South Asia Book Award (for Bombay Blues), the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and the London Writers/Waterstones Award, and was selected this year to be a Good Morning America Inspiration List headliner for ABC’s network-wide project for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2021. Tanuja Desai Hidier (she/her) is an award-winning author/singer-songwriter and innovator of the ‘booktrack’.

Born confused by tanuja desai hidier