I have written a piece for Granta on bookshelves. When I moved into the house I bought a few years ago across the road from Vassar College library, the first thing I unpacked was my own little library. On one small shelf I put books by John Berger, putting in the center an anthology of… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Writing
New Interview
Jeffrey Williams (JW): Your new novel, Immigrant, Montana, has been widely reviewed and most of the reviews have touted it as autofiction, although it strikes me that it is not really autobiographical. Having known you for a long time, I’d say you conducted a skillful ruse, giving it the air of autobiography. Amitava Kumar… Read more »
I’m Writing a Novel, but There Is the News
In which I ask: What can you write that will make anyone reading you give a dying man a drink of water? More
MacDowell Residency, June-July 2019
Drawing in a Time of Fear & Lies
I’m so very excited to have published this piece—particularly my drawing—in the art magazine Hyperallergic.
The Summer That Changed You
An Indian newspaper asked me to contribute a hundred words about a summer that was transformative. I wrote about the summer when I wrote the first draft of Immigrant, Montana. (The novel was published in India as The Lovers.) I was also asked to supply a photo from the time I was writing about. My… Read more »
The World Is Made Up Of Lines
My friend Vasundhara at Aleph Book Company in Delhi asked me to share my writing advice. It was pub day for my book Writing Badly Is Easy. When I got her note on my phone, I was at Mass MOCA in North Adams. My daughter took this picture. I have now written a few lines… Read more »
Prized Possession
For Canada’s Sharp Magazine, I wrote a little piece about my most prized possession: my mother’s prayer beads. My father opened my mother’s closet and laid out all its contents on the bed: beautiful silk saris, a couple of woollen coats, sweaters, small pieces of jewellery, a few gold coins. This was just hours after… Read more »
Consider the Monkey
I wrote an original essay for Powells.com about Ota Benga and the ways in which monkeys became a part of my novel, Immigrant Montana. Click here.
Notebooks
Granta has carried an essay of mine on the notebooks I used during the writing of my novel, Immigrant, Montana. And also an excerpt.