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Jhumpa Lahiri

ジャンパ・ラヒリ

Jhumpa Lahiri

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1967-07-11 （London, England）
Nationality
Indian (formerly), American, British
Languages
English, Italian, Bengali (spoken)
Residence History
London (birth) → Kingston, Rhode Island, USA → Brooklyn, New York, USA → Rome, Italy (resident)

Career

Occupations
Author, Translator, Professor
Active Years
1993-
Affiliations
Princeton University (Professor of Creative Writing, 2015–2022), Barnard College (Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing, 2022– ), Fine Arts Work Center (Fellow, 1997–1998)
Memberships
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (appointed 2010)
Influenced By
James Joyce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, William Trevor, Mavis Gallant
Nominations
Man Booker Prize (2013) shortlist for The Lowland, National Book Award (2013) finalist for The Lowland

Education

Barnard College (Columbia University)
English / English Literature
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1985–1989
Year of Graduation: 1989
Country: United States
BA in English. Later pursued writing career.
Boston University
Graduate programs (English, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing) / English / Comparative Literature / Creative Writing
Degree: MA, MFA, PhD
Period: 1990s（1990–1997）
Year of Graduation: 1997
Country: United States
Earned MA in English, MFA in Creative Writing, MA in Comparative Literature and PhD (Renaissance Studies) at Boston University; dissertation completed in 1997.

Awards

O. Henry Award
1999
Work: Interpreter of Maladies (short story)
Organization: O. Henry Award organization
Result: 受賞
PEN/Hemingway Award (for debut fiction)
1999
Work: Interpreter of Maladies (collection)
Organization: PEN America
Result: 受賞
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
2000
Work: Interpreter of Maladies (collection)
Organization: Pulitzer Prize administration
Result: 受賞
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
2008
Work: Unaccustomed Earth
Organization: Frank O'Connor Award organization
Result: 受賞
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
2015
Work: The Lowland
Organization: DSC Prize organization
Result: 受賞
National Humanities Medal
2014
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 受賞
PEN/Malamud Award
2017
Organization: PEN/Malamud
Result: 受賞
Honorary Doctorate (University of Bologna, etc.)
2021
Organization: Academic institutions
Result: 授与

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Interpreter of Maladies

1999 Short story collection

A collection of stories about Indian and Indian-American characters; explores identity, dislocation and intimate family dynamics.

Immigrant experienceFamilyLonelinessCultural conflict

The Namesake

2003 Novel

Follows Gogol Ganguli, a second-generation Indian-American, and explores names, identity and family relationships.

Names and identityGenerational divideImmigration and assimilation
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Namesake (film) / Mira Nair (2007)

Unaccustomed Earth

2008 Short story collection

A collection that shifts focus to second- and third-generation characters and individual interior lives.

Generational changePersonal developmentFamily relationships

The Lowland

2013 Novel

A novel about political strife in India and the repercussions on an immigrant family; two brothers' diverging paths shape their family's fate.

Politics and the personalFamily burdenImpact of migration

Dove mi trovo / Whereabouts

2018 Novel (written in Italian)

A novel Lahiri wrote in Italian, meditative on urban solitude and fragments of everyday life; later translated into English.

SolitudeEveryday lifeLanguage and expression
Translations
  • Whereabouts (English translation)

Racconti romani / Roman Stories

2022 Short story collection (in Italian)

A collection set in Rome, written in Italian and translated into English by Lahiri (and collaborators).

City lifeMemoryCultural intersections

Bibliography

  • Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
  • The Namesake (2003)
  • Unaccustomed Earth (2008)
  • The Lowland (2013)
  • In altre parole (2015, Italian) / In Other Words (2016, English)
  • Dove mi trovo (2018, Italian) / Whereabouts (2021, English)
  • Racconti romani (2022) / Roman Stories (2023)

Adaptations

  • The Namesake (2007 film directed by Mira Nair)
  • Unaccustomed Earth (Netflix drama adaptation announced 2025)

Translations by Author

  • Ties (2017), translation from Italian of Domenico Starnone's Lacci
  • Trick (2018), translation from Italian of Domenico Starnone's Scherzetto
  • Trust (2021), translation from Italian of Domenico Starnone's Confidenza

Translations of Works

  • Dove mi trovo → Whereabouts (English translation, 2021)
  • Racconti romani → Roman Stories (English translation, 2023)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Plain, restrained proseDetailed character interiorityEmotional excavation through quotidian detail
Recurring Motifs
Names and identityFamily bonds and ruptureImmigrant experienceLanguage and translatability

Legacy

Jhumpa Lahiri brought stories of immigrant experience and family to wide audiences with plain, elegant prose. A Pulitzer Prize winner with numerous honors, her work in both English and Italian has stimulated discussion on language and identity.

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Letters (award-related)

In Popular Culture

  • The Namesake was adapted into a major motion picture (2007).
  • Netflix adaptation of Unaccustomed Earth announced (2025).

Quotes

  • I wasn't born here, but I might as well have been.
    Source: Newsweek (essay "My Two Lives") (2006)
  • Language is a place. For me language establishes a place of being.
    Source: Los Angeles Review of Books (interview) (2021)

Trivia

  • As a child she 'self-published' a book titled The Life of a Weighing Scale for a school contest.
  • Moved to Rome in 2012 and subsequently began writing in Italian.
  • Won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Interpreter of Maladies — notable because a short-story collection rarely wins the prize.