Jhumpa Lahiri Totally Explained

Everything about Jhumpa Lahiri totally explained

Jhumpa Lahiri (IPA: /ˈdʒuːm.pʌ lʌˈhɪər.iː/) (born Nilanjana Sudeshna on 11 July 1967) (Bengali: ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ী Jhumpa Lahiŗi) 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.

Biography

Early life

Lahiri was born in London, England, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Her family 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 Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island; Lahiri's mother wanted her children to grow up knowing of their Bengali heritage, and her family often visited relatives in Calcutta, India.
When she began kindergarten in Kingston, Lahiri's teacher decided to call her by her pet name, Jhumpa, because it was easier to pronounce than her "good names". Lahiri's ambivalence over her identity was the inspiration for the ambivalence of Gogol, the protagonist of her novel The Namesake, over his unusual name.
Lahiri 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). Lahiri taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Literary career

During her six years at Boston University, Lahiri worked on short stories, Interpreter of Maladies won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction (only the seventh time a story collection had won the award), and sold 600,000 copies. New York Times Book Review editor Dwight Garner stated, "It’s hard to remember the last genuinely serious, well-written work of fiction — particularly a book of stories — that leapt straight to No. 1; it’s a powerful demonstration of Lahiri’s newfound commercial clout."

Personal life

In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America. Lahiri lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two children, Octavio (b. 2002) and Noor (b. 2005). Since 2005, Lahiri has been a Vice President of the PEN American Center, an organization designed to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers.

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"
1999 — "Interpreter of Maladies" selected as one of Best American Short Stories
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"
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

Works

Short story collections

Interpreter of Maladies (1999)

Unaccustomed Earth (2008)

Novels

The Namesake (2003)

Short stories

"Nobody's Business" (11 March 2001, The New Yorker) ("The Best American Short Stories 2002")

"Hell-Heaven"

(24 May 2004, The New Yorker)

"Once In A Lifetime"

(1 May 2006, The New Yorker)

"Year's End" (24 December 2007, The New Yorker)

Contributions

(Introduction) The Magic Barrel: Stories by Bernard Malamud, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2003.

(Introduction) Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan, Penguin Classics, August 2006.Further Information

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