Jhumpa Lahiri Vourvoulias (born Nilanjana Sudeshna in 1967) (Bengali: ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ী Jhumpa Lahiŗi) is a contemporary Indian American author based in New York City. Bengali or Bangla (বাংলা, IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit. ... For an article on American Indians see Native Americans. ... New York, NY redirects here. ...

A picture of Lahiri on her book, The Namesake

Image File history File links Lahiri2. ... Image File history File links Lahiri2. ... For the film of the same name, see The Namesake (film) The Namesake (2003) is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. ...

Background

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England in July 1967, and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Brought up in America by a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, she learned about her Bengali heritage from an early age. Lahiri received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. She then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, an M.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took up a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997-1998). London — containing the City of London — is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England and a major world city. With over seven million inhabitants (Londoners) in Greater London area, it is amongst the most densely populated areas in Western Europe. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... The Bengali people are the ethnic community from Bengal (divided between India and Bangladesh) on the Indian subcontinent with a history dating back four millennia. ... Barnard College, founded in 1889, is one of the four undergraduate divisions of Columbia University. ... For similarly-named academic institutions, see Boston (disambiguation). ...

In 2001, she married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America. Lahiri currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children. She has been a Vice President of the PEN American Center since 2005. Time, (whose trademark is capitalized TIME) is a weekly American newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. ... Logo of International PEN International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere; to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as...

Career

Lahiri taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Much of her short fiction concerns the lives of Indian-Americans, particularly Bengalis. For similarly-named academic institutions, see Boston (disambiguation). ... The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, pronounced /RIZ-dee/) is one of the premier fine arts institutions in the United States. ... It has been suggested that Non-resident_Indian_and_Person_of_Indian_Origin#Statistics_on_Indians_in_the_US be merged into this article or section. ... The Bengali people are the ethnic community from Bengal (divided between India and Bangladesh) on the Indian subcontinent with a history dating back four millennia. ...

Interpreter of Maladies

As a collection of nine distinct short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri's debut, addresses sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants. The stories' themes include marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second generation immigrants in the United States. The stories are set in the northeastern United States, and in India, particularly Calcutta. It won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Interpreter of Maladies is a 2000 collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri. ... This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ...

The Namesake

The Namesake, her fifth book and first novel, was published in 2003. An anecdote published in USA Today mentions a schoolteacher who found her given name too long and used her nickname Jhumpa instead.^[1] Lahiri adapted this incident in her book, which spans more than thirty years in the life of a fictional family, the Gangulis. The parents, each born in Calcutta, immigrated to the United States as young adults. Their children, Gogol and Sonia, grow up in the United States and much of the tension of the novel is dependent upon the generation and cultural gap between the parents and the children. One of the major themes of the book is the confusion caused by the a misunderstanding which occurred when Gogol is very young: his pet name (Gogol) becomes mistaken for his real name. Thus, Gogol's unusual name serves as a symbol of his own unclear cultural identity (further complicated by the fact that Gogol is the last name of a noted Russian author). For the film of the same name, see The Namesake (film) The Namesake (2003) is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. ... // A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things proper name (for example, Bob, Rob, Robby, Robbie, Robi, Robin, Robbo, RobBob, Bobby, Rab, Rabbie, Bert, Bertie, Butch, Bobbers, Bobert, Beto, Bobadito, and Robban (in Sweden), are all nicknames for Robert). ... This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ... Nikolai Gogol by Alexander Ivanov Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Russian: IPA: ) (April 1, 1809 — March 4, 1852) was a Russian-language writer of Ukrainian origin. ...

Film

• The film, The Namesake was released in March 2007 in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is directed by Mira Nair and a screenplay adapted from Lahiri's novel by Sooni Taraporevala. The film stars Kal Penn as the young protagonist Gogol, and features Bollywood stars Tabu and Irfan Khan. Lahiri, herself is an extra in the film.

The Namesake (2007) is a film which will receive a limited release in the United States on March 9, 2007. ... Mira Nair (born October 15, 1957 at Rourkela, Orissa) is an India-born, New York-based film director. ... Sooni Taraporevala is best known as the screenwriter for the Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay! and Mississippi Masala, both directed by Mira Nair. ... Kal Penn (born Kalpen Suresh Modi on April 23, 1977) is an American actor. ... A protagonist is the, or a, central figure of a story. ... Tabu may refer to: Tabu (also spelled tapu), a Polynesian cultural concept, from which the word taboo derives its usage. ... There are multiple individuals named Irfan Khan, including: Irfan Khan (actor), a Bollywood actor. ...

Awards

• 1993 - TransAtlantic Award from the Henfield Foundation
• 1999 - O. Henry Award for short story "Interpreter of Maladies"
• 1999 - PEN/Hemingway Award (Best Fiction Debut of the Year) for "Interpreter of Maladies"
• 2000 - Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2000 - The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year for "Interpreter of Maladies"
• short story "Interpreter of Maladies" selected as one of Best American Short Stories
• 2000 - Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut Interpreter of Maladies
• 2000 - James Beard Foundation's M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award for "Indian Takeout" in Food & Wine Magazine
• 2002 - Guggenheim Fellowship

The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. ... Interpreter of Maladies is a 2000 collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri. ... The James Beard Foundation is a New York-based national professional non-profit organization named in honor of James Beard that serves to promote the culinary arts by honoring chefs, wine professionals, journalists, and cookbook authors at annual award ceremonies and providing scholarships and educational opportunities to cooking hopefuls. ... Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ...

Bibliography

• 1999 Interpreter of Maladies
• 2001 "Nobody's Business" (11 March 2001, The New Yorker) ("The Best American Short Stories 2002")
• 2003 The Namesake
• 2004 "Hell-Heaven" (24 May 2004, The New Yorker) - full text
• 2006 "Once In A Lifetime" (1 May 2006, The New Yorker) - full text
• 2007 Samanami, translated Bengali version of her The Namesake, published from Kolkata, India by Ananda Publishers - [1].
• 2008 Unaccustomed Earth - [2]

Interpreter of Maladies is a 2000 collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri. ... For the film of the same name, see The Namesake (film) The Namesake (2003) is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. ... Bengali or Bangla (বাংলা, IPA: ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from Prakrit, Pāli and Sanskrit. ... For the film of the same name, see The Namesake (film) The Namesake (2003) is the second book by author Jhumpa Lahiri. ...   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ... Ananda Publishers is a large publishing group with head-quarters in Calcutta. ...

References

• Selvadurai, Shyam (ed.). "Jhumpa Lahiri: This Blessed House." Story-Wallah: A Celebration of South Asian Fiction. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005:391-410.

Notes

1. ^ For Pulitzer winner Lahiri, a novel approach, USA Today

External links

Biographies:

• SAWNET biography
• SAJA biography
• Biography

Misc.:

• Lahiri in context of the Subcontinent
• Barnard news about the Pulitzer
• NPR Interview on Fresh Air
• PBS interview about the Pulitzer
• Research on Lahiri (Bibliographical Information)
• Newsweek Article: My Two Lives