Amitava Kumar (born 17 March 1963) is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely fol ...

Early life

Kumar was born in the city of

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the G ...

in the Indian state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

on 17 March 1963. He grew up close to his birthplace in

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, also in Bihar. There he spent his formative years at St Michael's High School. In India, Kumar earned a bachelor's degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

from Hindu College,

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

in 1984. He holds two master's degrees in

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

and Literature from

(1986) and

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

(1988) respectively. In 1993, he received his doctoral degree from the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. He lives with his family in

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie i ...

, New York.

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). Hi
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). In his review,

Dwight Garner (critic) Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

at the ''New York Times'' called it a "perceptive and soulful – if at times academic – meditation on the global war on terror and its cultural and human repercussions." It was also awarded the Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the Asian American Literary Awards. ''Husband of a Fanatic'' was an "Editors' Choice" book at the ''New York Times''; ''Bombay-London-New York'' was on the list of "Books of the Year" in ''New Statesman'' (UK); and ''Passport Photos'' won an "Outstanding Book of the Year" award from the Myers Program for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America. His novel ''Home Products'' was short-listed for India's premier literary prize, the

Vodafone Crossword Book Award The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Bo ...

. 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 ''

Critical Inquiry ''Critical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Chicago). While the topics and historica ...

'', ''

Critical Quarterly ''Critical Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by Wiley. The editor-in-chief is Colin MacCabe. The journal notably published the Black Papers on education starting in 1969. History Early years ''Critical Q ...

'', '' College Literature'', '' Race and Class'', ''

American Quarterly ''American Quarterly'' is an academic journal and the official publication of the American Studies Association. The journal covers topics of both domestic and international concern in the United States and is considered a leading resource in the ...

'', ''

Rethinking Marxism ''Rethinking Marxism'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Marxist analyses of economics, culture, and society. It was established in 1988 and has been published by Routledge since 2003 on behalf of the Association for Economi ...

'', ''

Minnesota Review ''The Minnesota Review'' is a literary magazine covering literary and cultural studies which places a special emphasis on politically engaged criticism, fiction, and poetry. Issues are often "themed," recent issues examining the nature of academ ...

'', '' Journal of Advanced Composition'', ''

Amerasia Journal ''Amerasia Journal'' is a triannual peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of ...

'' and ''

Modern Fiction Studies ''Modern Fiction Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1955 at Purdue University's Department of English, where it is still edited. It publishes general and themed issues on the topic of modernist and contemporary fiction ...

''. As a journalist, Kumar has regularly authored articles for newspapers and magazines across the world such as ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', ''

The Caravan ''The Caravan'' is an Indian English-language, long-form narrative journalism magazine covering politics and culture. History In 1940, Vishwa Nath launched ''Caravan'' as the first magazine from the Delhi Press; it went on to establish it ...

'', ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Limited, Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, ...

'' and '' The Hindu''. In 2008, on

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

's ''Riz Khan Show'', Kumar was interviewed on the use of terror threats by governments to advance their own political agendas; the interview aired on the Al Jazeera English Network. In February 2011, Kumar interviewed Indian novelist

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

for ''

Guernica Magazine ''Guernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics'' is an online magazine that publishes art, photography, fiction, and poetry from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces, and opinion pieces on internat ...

''. Kumar, Ruchir Joshi,

Jeet Thayil Jeet Thayil (born 1959) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is the author of several poetry collections, including ''These Errors Are Correct'' (2008), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award. His first novel, '' Narcopolis,'' ( ...

and

Hari Kunzru Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels ''The Impressionist'', ''Transmission'', ''My Revolutions'', '' Gods Without Men'', ''White Tears''David Robinson"Interview: Hari Kunzru, au ...

, were threatened with arrest for reading excerpts from

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and W ...

's ''

The Satanic Verses ''The Satanic Verses'' is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realis ...

'', which is banned in India, at the 2012

Jaipur Literature Festival The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual literary festival which takes place in the Indian city of Jaipur each year in the month of January. It was founded in 2006. It is the world's largest free literary festival. The Diggi Pala ...

. In March 2013, Kumar collaborated with

Teju Cole Teju Cole (born June 27, 1975) is a Nigerian-American writer, photographer, and art historian. He is the author of a novella ''Every Day Is for the Thief'' (2007), a novel ''Open City'' (2011), an essay collection ''Known and Strange Things'' (20 ...

on a text-with-photographs entitle
"Who's Got the Address?"

Published works

Books

* ''No Tears for the N.R.I.'', Writers Workshop, 1996, , a book of poems * ''Passport Photos'', University of California Press, 2000, , multi-genre book on immigration and postcoloniality * ''Bombay–London–New York'', Routledge, 2002, , 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, , book on writing and religious violence * ''Home Products'' (published in the U.S. under the title ''Nobody Does the Right Thing'' b
Duke University Press
2010, ) * ''A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm A Tiny Bomb'', Duke University Press Books, 2010, , 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, * ''Lunch with a Bigot: The Writer in the World'', Duke University Press Books, 2015, *''Immigrant, Montana'', Knopf, 2018, , first published in India as ''The Lovers'', Aleph, 2017, *''Every Day I Write the Book: Notes on Style'', Duke University Press Books, 2020, *''A Time Outside This Time'', Penguin Random House, 2021, ISBN 9780593319017 *''The Blue Book: A Writer's Journal'', HarperCollins India, 2022, , a book of drawings and diary entries

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 Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

. * ''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 Daisy Rockwell (born 1969) is an American Hindi and Urdu language translator and artist. She has translated a number of classic works of Hindi and Urdu literature, including Upendranath Ashk's ''Falling Walls'', Bhisham Sahni's '' Tamas'', and ...

* ''Where the Wild Frontiers Are'', by

Manan Ahmed Manan Ahmed Asif, commonly known as Manan Ahmed, is a historian of South Asia and West Asia, who works as an associate professor at the Columbia University in New York City. He is the founder of the South Asia blog ''Chapati Mystery'' and co-fo ...

. * "Duty-Free Indians", a Foreword to ''Suburban Sahibs: Three Immigrant Families and their Passage from India'' to America by

S. Mitra Kalita S. Mitra Kalita is a journalist, media executive and author of two books. Her first book 'Suburban Sahibs' is about how immigrants redefined New Jersey and thereby America and her second book 'My two Indias' is economic memoir about Globalization ...

. * "In Class", a Foreword to ''Class and Its Others'', edited by

J.K. Gibson-Graham J. K. Gibson-Graham is a pen name shared by feminist economic geographers Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson. Their first book ''The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It)'' was published in 1996, followed by ''A Postcapitalist Politics'' in 2006. ...

Awards and fellowships

Most recently, Kumar has been awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

(2016). He has also been awarded the Lannan Foundation Marfa Residency, residency at

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, a Fiction Fellowship at the

Norman Mailer Writers Colony Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, a Barach Fellowship at the

Wesleyan Writers Festival Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charl ...

, and has received awards from the

South Asian Journalists Association The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) was founded in 1994 in New York City. Sree Sreenivisan, Dilip Massand, M.K. Srinivasan and Om Malik co-founded SAJA as a networking organization for South Asian journalists. It is a group of more th ...

for three consecutive years. In addition, he has been awarded research fellowships from the NEH,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York syste ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, and University of California-Riverside. ''A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb'' was also judged the Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the Asian American Literary Awards.

External links

Official website

* ttp://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=23885 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Amitava 1963 births Living people Hindu College, Delhi alumni Syracuse University alumni University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Indian emigrants to the United States Vassar College faculty American male writers of Indian descent Modern School (New Delhi) alumni Writers from Patna Indian social sciences writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers