Posts By: Amitava Kumar

Bangalore Litfest

I will be at the Bangalore Literature Festival. My latest, The Yellow Book, will be released there. More about the book here. [Late addition: here is a little write-up about two conversations I had at the #blrlitfest.] Also, this discussion with writers and an editor I hugely admire.    

Cover

Here’s the cover of my new novel being published by Knopf on February 27, 2024. The cover was designed by Oliver Munday. I will urge you (only a million times) to pre-order the book here. My Beloved Life is being published in India by Aleph, by Picador in the UK, and by Hamish Hamilton in… Read more »

River Notes

I’m starting a Substack with an account of my journey, beginning June 25, through small towns and cities on the banks of the Ganges. Subscribe here.

Particulate Matter

In which I report on my visit to India this past winter. Many thanks to the editors of Granta magazine. A Bihari man working as a driver in Delhi told me a strange story. His name was Deepak. When his mother complained of chronic stomach pains, Deepak brought her from the village for treatment in… Read more »

Hindi Translation of My Novel

The Hindi translation of my first novel, Home Products, is now out from Rajkamal Prakashan. The translator is Prabhat Ranjan. Buy it here or from bookstores in India.

Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate

Granta Magazine, one of my favorite literary journals, has just published a report of mine entitled “Many Words for Heat, Many Words for Hate.” Above are the first two pages. Get a copy of Issue no. 162 or subscribe online. Here’s a paragraph from the piece: In Delhi the heat is chemical, something unworldly, a… Read more »

Dear Editor

HEAT Magazine in Australia has published a short-story of mine titled “Dear Editor.” It offers an account of the arrival of fascism in a remote small town in India. Read it here. Dear editor, both bathrooms at the back of the Air India flight from New York to Mumbai were out of order. The doors… Read more »

Conversation

I am grateful to Outlook Magazine in India for carrying my poem “Samvaad” (Conversation) both in its original Hindi and in my English translation.

2022

  At the beginning of 2022, I published The Blue Book: A Writer’s Journal. A joy to be read by people who had inspired me in my youth. This comment from Pritish Nandy: https://twitter.com/PritishNandy/status/1488780984061669377 It is sad that Bookforum is now gone. In the work I did in 2022, I wrote a piece on cricket… Read more »

Dilli

I am delighted to report that I will be in conversation with the marvelous graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee on December 17. Our discussion will focus on how storytelling and commentary is, in reality, a way of keeping a diary. Not just a personal diary but a public diary. A collective diary of the everyday and… Read more »