Remembering Balbir Backhaus (1953-2025)

By Kristen LaRue-Sandler — May 27, 2025

Former Department of English Instructor Balbir Backhaus passed away on May 15 from complications due to cancer. 

Backhaus taught for ASU Writing Programs for 20 years. She last taught in 2023, retiring earlier than she would have liked to focus on her health.

Backhaus was born and raised in California’s Central Valley where her parents emigrated from India. She moved to the Phoenix area and earned an MFA in creative writing at ASU in 2003. She mined her own experiences for her 2009 novel, writing as Bhira Backhaus, “Under the Lemon Trees” (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press) – the story of a young Indian woman struggling between embracing her heritage and fitting in as an American.

She further reflected on her heritage in an op-ed for The New York Times in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

She will be missed.