I wrote a piece about the Joan Didion estate-auction in Hudson. Ten days ago, I was leading a writing workshop for faculty at the college where I teach. I was preaching the importance of devising writing prompts that take you out into the world. The discoveries you make become material for writing. A day later,… Read more »
Posts Tagged: Amitava Kumar
Rushdie, Again
A week has passed since the attack on Salman Rushdie. Today, I published a longer essay on Oprah Daily. Why use a still from The Far Pavilions here? Read on. In the opening paragraph of his memoir titled Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie writes about first receiving the call from a BBC reporter asking for a response… Read more »
#IndiaAt75
PEN asked Indian writers to share thoughts on India’s 75th Independence Day. Here is my contribution. Go here to read the words of so many writers I admire: Kiran Desai, Suketu Mehta, Geetanjali Shree, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amit Chaudhuri, Jeet Thayil, and many, many others. These are sobering reflections on the idea of freedom—we… Read more »
An Open Letter to Hadi Matar
My open letter to Salman Rushdie’s would-be assassin in The Indian Express. Link here. An Open Letter to Hadi Matar Sub-heading: On Friday, a 24-year-old from New Jersey named Hadi Matar attacked the writer Salman Rushdie with a knife. Another writer wants the would-be assassin to know more about the man he tried to… Read more »
Caleb Stein
I have a brief opinion piece in the New York Times about Caleb Stein’s astonishing photographs. POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — When I accepted a job to teach literature and writing at Vassar College in the summer of 2005, a colleague told me that Poughkeepsie — lesser known to some as the Queen City of the Hudson… Read more »
Writer’s Notebook
In the manuscripts and archives section of the British library, I found Shiva Naipaul’s notebook that he kept during his visit to India to report on the assassination of Indira Gandhi. My piece about that notebook has been published in the Hindustan Times. Read it here.
Outlook Magazine
Read the interview here.
Dateline Delhi
The Blue Book: Out this month!
From HarperCollins India “To mull over a beautiful line while looking upon a beautiful painting is the sublime pleasure offered by Amitava Kumar’s The Blue Book. This painted diary is a collage of the personal and the political, of terrifying news, the fleeting seasons, everyday pleasures, precious conversations, families and friendships—and on every page, the… Read more »
UK Edition Out on Jan 6, 2022
Picador/Pan Macmillan is bringing out the UK edition of my novel on Jan 6, 2022. Run, don’t walk, etc.