Jhumpa Lahiri

Ruth Maxey (University of Nottingham)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.5: South Asian Diasporic Literature and Culture, 1800-present.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Muneeza Shamsie (Independent Scholar - Asia), Niaz Zaman (Independent University Bangladesh)

Dates

Born 11 Jul 1967
Activity 1999-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in United States; Italy

Cultural Identities

South Asian American

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Lahiri's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing – two volumes of short fiction and a novel to date – has met with remarkable success. Her literary début, the short fiction anthology,

Interpreter of Maladies

(1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000. This was an unusual win since it was for a first book, Lahiri was the first Asian American ever to receive the award, and it is relatively rare for the prize to be awarded for short fiction. Following

Interpreter

, which won other awards and sold very well, Lahiri’s novel,

The Namesake

(2003), and her second short story collection,

Unaccustomed Earth

(2008), have also combined critical acclaim with bestselling status: the latter was notable for instantly going to the top of the

New York Times

bestseller list.

On one level, Lahiri’s success can be

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2885 words

Citation: Maxey, Ruth. "Jhumpa Lahiri". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12112, accessed 21 November 2024.]