Molly A. Daniels

Ithaca

Molly A. Daniels passed away at her home in Ithaca on November 26, 2015, at the age of 83.

Born July 2, 1932, in Tiruvella, in the state of Kerala, India, she was the daughter of the late Leah Mikhail and A.C. Daniels. 

Molly Daniels came to the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship to Indiana University in 1961. She earned a doctorate from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in 1986.

Daniels taught fiction and poetry writing in the Continuing Education Program at the University of Chicago and also founded and taught at her own school, The Clothesline School of Writing in Chicago. Over 3,000 students went through her program between 1979 and 1999, when she semi-retired.

She published three books of fiction, two books of criticism, a creative writing manual, a book of short biographies of people who live in Ithaca, and she edited eight books of poetry and prose. 

Daniels was married to Indian poet A.K. Ramanujan, who died in 1993.

She is survived by her son, Krishna Ramanujan (Karryn) of Ithaca: daughter Krittika Ramanujan (Aaron Bass) of Albuquerque, New Mexico; and grandchildren, Simon Bass, Kalyani Ramanujan and Ana Malina Ramanujan.

Over the last years of her life, Daniels was cared for in Ithaca by Bonnalee Vann, Lisa Stevertson, Lissy Culver, Mackenzie Stilwell, Jane Hancock and Jewia Payne.

A private graveside service will be held on Thursday, December 3.  Lansing Funeral Home is assisting the family.