Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri Biography

Jhumpa Lahiri is a popular Bengali-American writer. Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Lahiri is a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama. Her latest book, The Lowland has been nominated for Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction. Her first novel, The Namesake (2003) became a feature film later, with the same name. Nilanjana Sudeshna is her real name and Jhumpa – her nickname in Bengali language.

Lahiri was born to Bengali parents in London. Her family moved to the United States when she was two. Hence she regards herself to be an American. Lahiri grew up in Kingston where her father worked as a librarian. She used her father as inspiration to write the closing story from Interpreter of Maladies - "The Third and Final Continent”. Her mother wanted her to grow in Bengali heritage. During her kindergarten her teacher used to call her by her pet name which she didn’t like at all. But later she came to be known by this name. It later became the inspiration to plot the protagonist of her novel, The Namesake. Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and completed graduation in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. Later she took multiple degrees from Boston University including post-graduation in English and Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies.

In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist and currently she lives in Rome. Now Alberto is the Senior Editor of TIME Latin America. Lahiri had to face a lot of rejections before her first book, Interpreter of Maladies got published in 1999. The work about Indian immigrants was praised by American critics, but received mixed reviews in India. In 2003, Lahiri published her first novel, The Namesake, which was later adapted by Mira Nair for an Indian movie.

Published: N/A

Updated: April 01, 2014