Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri (born Nilanjana Sudeshna on 11 July 1967) is an American author of Bengali Indian descent. Lahiri’s debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. Lahiri’s writing is characterized by her “plain” language and her characters, often Indian immigrants to

America who must navigate between the cultural values of their birthplace and their adopted home.

Born in London, England, Lahiri is the daughter of Indian immigrants who moved to the United States when she was three; Lahiri considers herself an American, stating, “I wasn’t born here, but I might as well have been.” Lahiri grew up in Barnard College in 1989. Lahiri then Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, an M.A. in worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island; the protagonist of Lahiri’s Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative story “The Third and Final Continent” is Literature and a Ph.D. in Renaissance based on her father. Lahiri’s mother wanted Studies. She took up a fellowship at her children to grow up knowing of their Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Center, Bengali heritage, and her family often which lasted for the next two years (1997— visited relatives in Calcutta, India. When she 1998). Lahiri taught creative writing at began kindergarten in Kingston, Lahiri’s Boston University and the Rhode Island teacher decided to call her by her pet name, School of Design. Jhumpa, because it was easier to pronounce than her “good names.“ Lahiri recalled, “I During her six years at Boston University, always felt so embarrassed by my name[…] Lahiri worked on short stories, nine of You feel like you’re causing someone pain which were collected in her debut book, just by being who you are.” Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies (1999). The stories ambivalence over her identity was the address sensitive dilemmas in the lives of inspiration for the ambivalence of Gogol, Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes the protagonist of her novel The Namesake, such as marital difficulties, miscarriages, over his unusual name. Lahiri graduated and the disconnection between first and from South Kingstown High School, and second generation United States immigrants. received her B.A. in English literature from Lahiri later wrote, “When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. What them. A film adaptation of The Namesake drew me to my craft was the desire to force was the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature released in March 2007, directed by Mira enough, to allow in life.” The collection was Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and praised by American critics, but received Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his mixed reviews in India, where reviewers parents. were alternately enthusiastic and upset Lahiri had “not paint[ed] Indians in a more Lahiri’s second collection of short stories, positive light.” Unaccustomed Earth, was released on April 1, 2008. Upon its publication, Interpreter of Maladies won the 2000 Unaccustomed Earth achieved the rare Pulitzer Prize for fiction (only the seventh distinction of debuting on The New York time a story collection had won the award), Times best seller list in the number 1 slot. was translated in twenty-nine languages, and New York Times Book Review editor sold 600,000 copies. In addition to the Dwight Garner stated, “It’s hard to Pulitzer, it received the PEN/Hemingway remember the last genuinely serious, well- Award, the New Yorker Debut of the Year written work of fiction —particularly a book award, an American Academy of Arts and of stories—that leapt straight to No. 1; it’s a Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a powerful demonstration of nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Lahiri’s newfound commercial clout.” Prize. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America. her highly anticipated first novel. The book Lahiri lives in Brooklyn, New York with her spans more than thirty years in the life of a husband and their two children, Octavio (b. fictional family, the Gangulis. The Calcutta- 2002) and Noor (b. 2005). born parents immigrated to the United States as young adults, and their children, Gogol Since 2005, Lahiri has been a Vice President and Sonia, grow up in the United States of the PEN American Center, an experiencing the constant generational organization designed to promote friendship andcultural gap between their parents and and intellectual cooperation among writers.

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