I have written an essay for the New Yorker “Second Reading” series expressing admiration for the early works of Michael Ondaatje.
Posts By: Amitava Kumar
Everybody Loves a Good Riot
Joe Sacco’s excellent report from India, The Once and Future Riot, was published by Metropolitan Books in the US last year, but its publication in India has run into trouble. The book was to be distributed by Penguin India and in recent weeks, we have learned that the publishers have decided to withdraw it. Penguin India reportedly sent… Read more »
Read Naipaul With Me
Join me in reading V.S. Naipaul’s The Enigma of Arrival. This is under the auspices of A Public Space. We start on March 23, 2026. The reading will stretch over 30 days; reading a daily average of 10-12 pages. My daily notes on the pages we are reading will be emailed to you if you… Read more »
Landscape of Memory
I have a new piece in the current issue of Outlook. It is an essay on the landscape of memory along with six of my drawings. You can read the whole piece here.
Children’s Tales in Granta
My report on the Andamans is out in Granta. It is probably the fourth essay on India, part-memoir, part-travel, that Luke Neima has helped me publish there, and my appreciation for Luke as an editor, thoughtful and exact, is profound and filled with gratitude. (He would have improved this preceding sentence. I’m writing in a cab… Read more »
Two Upcoming Events
A Train is Approaching
Aleph Book Company in India have published several of my books and in December this year they will be bringing out a new one. A short book in their excellent Essential India series. My thanks to Aleph—in particular, David Davidar. I’ll be participating on November 30 at a book event at Champaca Bookstore the Catholic… Read more »
Writer to Writer—with Teju Cole
Brick literary magazine has released the podcast conversation between Teju and me. This is a part of their Writer to Writer series.
Letter from Lake Como
I’m very lucky to have been awarded a Hawthornden Residency at Casa Ecco on Lake Como. As I report in my post, I arrived here and worked on the manuscript of the short book that will be published by Aleph under the title The Social Life of Indian Trains: A Journey. This is going to… Read more »
NYPL Researcher Spotlight Interview
My current trip to India is coming to an end. Have spent a lot of time in Bengal and it has been good. Tonight I’ll conduct a writing workshop at The Bookshop in Jor Bagh, and then get on a plane. In this post I want to share something different. In mid-July, while I was… Read more »