JK Cheema

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A close-up of JK Cheema.

JK Cheema

media release: As a child, Jatinder Cheema survived the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan and later enjoyed a long career as an American diplomat with USAID, serving in Asia, Africa, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Eritrea. A Place to Be is the story of the choices she makes and how she navigates life and work as a woman, making transitions from home to home and country to country, somehow making each place a place to be—making each place home.

JK Cheema was born in 1942 to a Sikh family in Lahore, which was then India and now Pakistan. After finishing her master's in social work from India, she immigrated to the United States. In 1981, she completed her PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After graduation, she moved to Washington, DC, and worked as an independent consultant with international organizations. In 1990, she joined the United States Agency for International Development and served in Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Armenia, and Afghanistan. She moved to Madison, Wisconsin after retirement, where she now lives with her husband. Cheema remains active in community associations and is the founder of A Place to Be, a place for creative conversations, dialogue, and learning. This is her second book.  

Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novels Wine People, You’re Not You, But Not For Long, and Bread and Butter, and the editor of the food writing anthology Food & Booze. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review and “Modern Love” column, Oprah Magazine, Poets & Writers, Real Simple online, Best American Food Writing, Best New American Voices, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, and other anthologies and journals. A former executive editor with the award-winning literary journal Tin House, she is a freelance editor and creative writing teacher in Madison, Wisconsin. Since 2013 she and novelist Susanna Daniel have run the Madison Writers’ Studio, offering a variety of creative writing workshops and classes.