Aruna Gurumurthy

Aruna Gurumurthy is a creative thinker, expressive writer, and poet.

Born in Mumbai, she lived in different parts of India before crossing barriers and continents to pursue graduate education in Massachusetts at the turn of the century.

She has worked in medical research at Duke University, the University of North Carolina, Harvard Medical School, and the University of California, Berkeley. Her research scholarships have been in diverse medical fields, including orthopedics, craniofacial genomics, functional GI, breast cancer, and community psychiatry, where she set out to explore fundamental questions about the mechanisms of disease and therapeutics

Aruna is an advocate of peace, believes in human empowerment, and is devoted to rural literacy, underprivileged children, elderly with Alzheimer’s, young adults with learning disability, and emancipation of school dropout teenagers. She believes that true change can happen when one immerses oneself in the community and empathizes with others’ minds.

Her first book DIYA was published in 2015 and was soon followed by Spark and A Beginning to the End, both full-length poetry collections. Aruna wishes to undo discrimination and hierarchies in the literary arts, and life beyond.

Aruna lives with her husband and toddler daughter in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She loves her life and plants, has an avid ear for music of all hues, and enjoys lap swimming. She enjoys basketball and is a fan of the Duke Blue Devils.

Participation at the 2017 West End Poetry Festival

• Curated Open Mic | Thursday, October 19 | starts at 6:30 pm | 2nd Wind
• For a full schedule and descriptions of all sessions, see the festival schedule.