Amitava Kumar
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Amitava Kumar | |
|---|---|
 Kumar speaking at the Asian American Writers Workshop in 2011. | |
| Born | 17 March 1963 |
| Alma mater | Delhi University Syracuse University University of Minnesota |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, journalist, and Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship <https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/amitava-kumar/>, United States Artists Fellow <https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/amitava-kumar/> |
Amitava Kumar (born 17 March 1963) is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English, holding the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College.[1]
Personal Life
Kumar was born in the city of
As a professor at Vassar College, Kumar has made significant connections in the writing and journalism world. Kumar served as a mentor to journalist Kelly Stout andAlanna Okun, a senior editor at Vox, while they were students at Vassar.[5]
The death of Kumar's parents had a significant effect on the content of his writing. He reminisced on his father and ancestors in a 2022 article for the wire.[6] In a 2024 article for Lit Hub, he compared experiencing the death of his father to various literary accounts of death, like in Blake Morrison's memoir When Did You Last See Your Father?.[7]
Work
Overview
Kumar is the author of Husband of a Fanatic (The New Press, 2005 and Penguin-India, 2004), Bombay-London-New York (Routledge and Penguin-India, 2002), Passport Photos (University of California Press and Penguin-India, 2000), the book of poems No Tears for the N.R.I. (Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1996), the novel Home Products (Picador-India, 2007 and as Nobody Does the Right Thing in 2009).
His prize-winning book is A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb: A Writer’s Report on the Global War on Terror (Duke University Press, 2010; and as Evidence of Suspicion, 2009
Husband of a Fanatic was an "Editors' Choice" book at the New York Times;
Kumar was the scriptwriter for two documentary films: Dirty Laundry – about the national-racial politics of Indian South Africans – and Pure Chutney – about the descendants of indentured Indian labourers in Trinidad.
His academic writing and literary criticism has appeared in several journals, including
As a journalist, Kumar has regularly authored articles for newspapers and magazines across the world such as
Kumar,
Kumar's most recent novel, My Beloved Life, was published in 2024 to positive review.[17]
Published works
Books
- No Tears for the N.R.I., Writers Workshop, 1996, ISBN 978-8171898930, a book of poems
- Passport Photos, University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0520218161, multi-genre book on immigration and postcoloniality
- Bombay–London–New York, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 978-0415942102, literary memoir cum critical report on Indian fiction
- Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Journey Through India, Pakistan, Love, and Hate, The New Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1565849266, book on writing and religious violence
- Home Products (published in the U.S. under the title Nobody Does the Right Thing by Duke University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0822346708)
- A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm A Tiny Bomb, Duke University Press Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0822345626, a non-fiction book about the war on terror, and the literary as well as artistic responses to it.
- A Matter of Rats: A Short Biography of Patna, Duke University Press Books, 2014, ISBN 978-0822357049
- Lunch with a Bigot: The Writer in the World, Duke University Press Books, 2015, ISBN 978-0822359111
- Immigrant, Montana, Knopf, 2018, ISBN 978-9386021007
- Every Day I Write the Book: Notes on Style, Duke University Press Books, 2020, ISBN 978-1478006275
- A Time Outside This Time, Penguin Random House, 2021, ISBN 9780593319017
- The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal, HarperCollins India, 2022, ISBN 9789354893742, a book of drawings and diary entries
- The Yellow Book: A Traveller's Diary, HarperCollins India, 2023, ISBN 9789356996038
- My Beloved Life, 2024, ISBN 9780593536063
Edited works
- Away: The Indian Writer as an Expatriate, edited volume of essays.
- World Bank Literature, edited volume of essays on global economies and literature.
- The Humour and the Pity, edited volume of essays on V.S. Naipaul.
- Poetics/Politics: Radical Aesthetics for the Classroom, edited volume of essays on radical aesthetics and pedagogy.
- Class Issues: Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, and the Public Sphere, edited volume of essays on radical teaching.
Forewords and introductory notes
- The Little Book of Terror, by Daisy Rockwell
- Where the Wild Frontiers Are, by Manan Ahmed.
- "Duty-Free Indians", a Foreword to Suburban Sahibs: Three Immigrant Families and their Passage from India to America by S. Mitra Kalita.
- "In Class", a Foreword to Class and Its Others, edited by J.K. Gibson-Graham.
Awards and fellowships
Kumar was awarded a
External links
- Official website
- New York Times review of Husband of a Fanatic
- Interview for the Wisconsin Book Festival, 2008
- Interview on blogsite "Between the Lines"
- Amitava Kumar's short story "Postmortem" on NPR
- WYNC interview on The Leonard Lopate Show, 2010
- WNYC interview on the Brian Lehrer Show, 2015
- Amitava Kumar on the PEN-Charlie Hebdo controversy
- Interview on Full Stop
- The Seen and the Unseen Podcast, 2022
References
- ^ "Logging out for life: students abstain from social media". The Miscellany News. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ a b "Kumar's Official Web Site". Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "Senior Bihar bureaucrat Ishwar Chandra Kumar passes away in Patna". 19 March 2023.
- ^ "Lunch With Professor Amitava Kumar - Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly". www.vassar.edu. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "Alums discuss journalism careers". The Miscellany News. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "The Comforts and Discomforts of Watching Time Pass Us By". The Wire. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ Kumar, Amitava (27 February 2024). "Amitava Kumar on Finding Solace in the Words of Others". Literary Hub. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ Pandita, Rahul (30 January 2010). "Innocence Lost". Open. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ "Dwight Garner on Kumar". The New York Times. 5 August 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "New Statesman Web Site". Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "Business Standard Article". Business Standard. 10 June 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ "Amitava Kumar – About". Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
- ^ Khan, Rizwan (9 November 2010). "Politics of terror threats". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ Kumar, Amitava (February 2011). "The Un-Victim". Guernica. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ Singh, Akhilesh Kumar; Chowdhury, Shreya Roy (23 January 2012). "Salman Rushdie shadow on Jaipur Literature Festival: 4 authors who read from 'The Satanic Verses' sent packing". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ "Who's Got the Address?". 15 March 2013.
- ^ "My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "English Professor Kumar wins Guggenheim Fellowship". The Miscellany News. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ "Amitava Kumar – About". Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
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