Lamba, Marie

Personal

Born in Flushing, NY; married Baldev Lamba (a landscape architect); children: two daughters. Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.A., 1984; attended College of St. Paul and St. Mary. Hobbies and other interests: Girl Scouts.

Addresses

Home—Doylestown, PA. E-mail—marielamba@hotmail.com.

Career

Freelance writer and novelist. Has also worked as a publishers assistant, promotion manager, freelance editor, and in public relations.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Writings

What I Meant … (novel), Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

What I Said … (novel), Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to periodicals, including Writer's Digest, Garden Design, Sports International, and Your Home.

Sidelights

Marie Lamba is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in such publications as Garden Design and Your Home. In 2007, after more than a decade of writing fiction, her young-adult novel What I Meant … was published.

Set in Lamba's home town of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, What I Meant … focuses on fifteen-year-old Sangeet Jumnal, the daughter of an Italian-American mother and an East Indian father. Sang's troubles begin when her best friend, Gina, inexplicably stops talking to her, and she is later stood up by her classmate and secret crush Jason. Things get worse when Sang's widowed aunt moves into the family home and items begin disappearing. When her aunt places the blame on Sang, the teen must defend her honor. Writing in Booklist, Hazel Rochman praised "Sang's hilarious, angry, hip narrative about her diverse family and friends," and a Kirkus Reviews critic deemed What I Meant … "realistic and well-paced." "The teen's family life and struggles will resonate with readers of all backgrounds," concluded School Library Journal reviewer Cara von Wrangel Kinsey of Lamba's fiction debut.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of What I Meant …, 52.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2007, review of What I Meant ….

Publishers Weekly, July 23, Hazel Rochman, review of What I Meant …, p. 69.

School Library Journal, November, 2007, Cara von Wrangel Kinsey, review of What I Meant …, p. 128.

ONLINE

Asians of Mixed Race Web site,http://www.asiansofmixedrace.com/ (December 1, 2007), Frank Y Pak Agostinelli, interview with Lamba.

Marie Lamba Home Page,http://www.marielamba.com (October 15, 2008).

Marie Lamba Web log,http://marielamba.wordpress.com (October 15, 2008).