Amit Chaudhuri (born 15 May 1962) is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He is currently a professor of creative writing at

Ashoka University Ashoka University is a private research university located in Sonipat, Haryana, providing a liberal education in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. It was founded in 2014 and is based on the model of collective philanthropy, ...

. He was previously professor of contemporary literature at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

from 2006 to 2021. In 2013, he was awarded the Infosys Prize for outstanding contribution to the humanities in Literary Studies In January 2018, Chaudhuri began writing a series for ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'' titled ''The Moment''. He also wrote an occasional column, "Telling Tales", for ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

''.

Personal life

Amit Chaudhuri was born in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(renamed

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

) in 1962 and grew up in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(renamed

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

). He took his first degree in English literature from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, and wrote his doctoral dissertation on

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

's poetry at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. He is married to Rosinka Chaudhuri, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC).

Music

Chaudhuri is a singer in the North Indian classical tradition, who has performed internationally. He learned singing from his mother, Bijoya Chaudhuri, and from the late Pandit Govind Prasad Jaipurwale of the Kunwar Shyam gharana

Awards and honours

*1991

Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35 who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total at least , with normally one author receiving a larger prize amount ( ...

and

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

for Best First Book for ''A Strange and Sublime Address'' *1994

Encore Award The £15,000 Encore Award for the best second novel was first awarded in 1990. It is sponsored by Lucy Astor, presented by the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King Ge ...

and Southern Arts Literature Prize, ''Afternoon Raag'' *2009 Elected Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

. *2012

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award granted to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards for researc ...

for the Humanities in Literary Studies *2020 Honorary Fellow, Modern Language Association (MLA) *2022 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Biography, ''Finding the Raga.''

Bibliography

Novels

*''A strange and sublime address''. Penguin, 1991, *''Afternoon Raag''. Heinemann, 1993, The book won the Encore Award. The 25th anniversary edition was published by Penguin Random House India in 2019 with a foreword by James Wood. *''Freedom Song''. Picador, 1998; Alfred A. Knopf, 1999,
excerpt
*; Random House Digital, Inc., 2002, * * * Friend of My Youth, 2017, Penguin Random House India *

Collected short stories

Poetry

Libretto

* '' Sukanya'', the only opera by

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitar, sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of Hin ...

Non-fiction

* *''Small Orange Flags'' (Seagull, 2003) * * ''Calcutta: Two Years in the City'', Union Books (2013) *

Edited anthologies

* *''Memory's Gold: Writings on Calcutta'' (2008)

Dissertation

Chaudhuri's D.Phil. dissertation at Oxford was published by Clarendon Press as a monograph titled ''D.H. Lawrence and Difference'' in 2003. It was called a "classic" by Tom Paulin in his preface to the book;

Terry Eagleton Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books, ...

wrote in the ''London Review of Books'' that it is "a fine book, which if it had expanded its scope and dug rather deeper might even have been even better".

References

External links

*
Amit Chaudhuri
at

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

*
Amit Chaudhuri
at the

Munzinger-Archiv Munzinger-Archiv is a German Publishing, publisher and online encyclopedia based in the Baden-Württemberg city of Ravensburg. The content of the archive includes entries about people in politics, business, culture, sport, music and society, abou ...

Amit Chaudhuri
at the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 201 ...

''
"Surpanakha"
story at ''The Little Magazine''

''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

''
"A date with Amit Chaudhuri"
''The Telegraph'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhuri, Amit 1962 births 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian novelists Academics of the University of East Anglia Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Bengali Hindus Bengali writers English-language writers from India Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Indian emigrants to England Indian male essayists Indian male novelists Living people Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English Writers from Kolkata Chauduri, Amit