I have a piece in the New York Times Book Review where I ask writers to offer pithy advice about writing: I suspect writers are more likely than, say, firefighters or doctors or second basemen to seek professional advice from those they admire. This is because writing is regarded as a magical act, its mysteries… Read more »
Posts By: Amitava Kumar
George Saunders
Here’s a link to the video on YouTube for the conversation between George Saunders and me for JLF Litfest’s “Brave New World” series.
Announcement: A Time Outside This Time
Aleph (India), Knopf (US), Hamish Hamilton (Canada), and Picador (UK).
McNally Jackson Zoom Event
Every Day I Write the Book Register for this free McNally Jackson event on Zoom. A conversation on writing between Amitava Kumar and Hua Hsu, Thursday, May 21, 7 PM EST. From the McNally Jackson website: Topic Amitava Kumar (Every Day I Write the Book) In Conversation with Hua Hsu Description Amitava Kumar’s Every Day I… Read more »
On Our Grief
In the Indian Express, my article on our current grief. “The contagion has produced a new world, no doubt, but everything appears to be only a repetition of all that was there before.” More
BRICK Podcast
BRICK Magazine has just uploaded a podcast-interview with me where I answer the question: What can you write that will make anyone reading you give a dying man a drink of water? (And to read my original piece from BRICK 103, go here.
Postcards from the Pandemic
Virginia Quarterly Review has uploaded three of my #coronavirusdiary entries and three drawings as a part of their #VQRTrueStory series described as a “social-media experiment in nonfiction.” Go here for the first, here for the second, and here for the third.
Pub Day
Today is the official pub day Every Day I Write the Book. LitHub has published an extract from the book on writers and their rituals. And here’s an interview with Joe Donahue at the NPR station WAMC. Duke University Press is offering 50% off through May 1. Use the coupon code SPRING50. Go here to… Read more »
In Case of Emergency
I had scarcely imagined a pandemic looming in the future when I designed this sign for Every Day I Write the Book. This book, a product of many years of labor, is out this month. It is being offered for a truly remarkable fifty percent discount at the Duke University Press site. Go here and… Read more »
My Daughter’s Letter
I’m proud of my daughter who has written a prize-winning essay about an embarrassing event: Dear imagined future self, On Halloween, my best friend’s older brother sold us each one Poland Spring water bottle filled with watered-down vodka. There are now 15 dollars less to my name. We drank this vodka with a great deal… Read more »