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 »
Posts Tagged: Amitava Kumar
City of Asylum, Pittsburgh
Home
At the airport in Delhi, I recorded a two-minute podcast on my idea of home.
Thank you, President Obama
Barack Obama shared his list of favorite books for 2018 and I was delighted to find Immigrant, Montana on that list, right between David Blight and the late great Denis Johnson!
Yale
I have just returned from a lovely visit to Yale University where I visiting Professor Leah Mirakhor’s writing class and then did a reading and talk at Ezra Stiles College. (At Ezra Stiles, I read from Immigrant, Montana and collected some valuable merch. An Ezra Stiles woolen scarf and thermos. Thank you for the opportunity,… Read more »
Speaking Of
It was an honor to deliver the 2018 Vassar College Convocation Address on September 12. A preview was offered here. I love in particular the beautiful and historic chapel on campus. Photos by Karl Rabe. In other news, the audio reading I did of Immigrant, Montana has received a wonderful review here: IMMIGRANT, MONTANA… 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 »
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.
He’s Gotta Have It
In the pages of the latest New Yorker, Joanna Biggs has a lovely, absorbing review of Immigrant, Montana. The new book falls between genres. Its aim is not to tell a story, exactly, but to create a portrait of a mind moving uneasily between a new, chosen culture and the one left behind. Kailash’s journey… Read more »
From Alice Munro to Zadie Smith
Thanks to Jane Ciabattari, I recommend five books on love for Book Marks over at Lithub.