World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Rana Dasgupta

ラナ・ダスグプタ

Rana Dasgupta

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1971-11-05 （Canterbury, England）
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
Canterbury (birth) → Cambridge (grew up) → Aix-en-Provence (music study) → Delhi (adopted city / base for writing) → Providence (teaching at Brown University)

Career

Occupations
novelist, essayist, writer, literary director
Active Years
2000-
Affiliations
JCB Prize for Literature (founding literary director), Brown University (Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Writer-in-Residence), Princeton University (Visiting Fellow)

Education

Balliol College, University of Oxford
Faculty of Arts (French literature) / Department of French Literature
Degree: BA
Period: 1991–1994
Year of Graduation: 1994
Country: United Kingdom
Studied French literature
Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, Aix-en-Provence
Piano / Music
Country: France
Studied piano
University of Wisconsin–Madison (Fulbright scholar)
Media Studies (research)
Country: United States
Attended as a Fulbright scholar in Media Studies

Awards

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book
2010
Work: Solo
Organization: Commonwealth Writers
Result: 受賞
Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature
2017
Work: Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi
Organization: Musée Guimet
Result: 受賞
Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage
2017
Work: Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi
Organization: Ryszard Kapuściński Award committee
Result: 受賞
Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize
2019
Work: Solo
Organization: Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize organization
Result: 受賞
Windham–Campbell Literature Prize
2025
Work: Capital (The Eruption of Delhi)
Organization: Yale University / Windham–Campbell Prizes
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Tokyo Cancelled

2005 Fiction (linked short stories / novel)

Thirteen passengers stranded overnight in an airport tell thirteen stories set in different cities around the world; a linked narrative exploring globalization and contemporary forms of life with mythic and surreal elements.

globalizationmigration and bordersurban lifemyth and storytelling
Translations
  • Original in English (translated into multiple languages)

Solo

2009 Fiction (epic with fantastical elements)

An epic novel told from the perspective of a 100-year-old Bulgarian man, tracing the wrong turnings of the 20th century and projecting into the 21st with a mix of fantastical and prophetic imagery.

history and memoryindividual lives amid large upheavalsglobal-historical perspective
Translations
  • Translated into 20+ languages

Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi

2014 Non-fiction (urban study / reportage)

A non-fiction exploration of Delhi through personalities and places, examining the changes brought by globalization and the new hierarchies and dynamics shaping the city.

urbanizationcapital and classglobalizationsocial transformation
Translations
  • Original in English (translated / republished internationally)

Bibliography

  • Tokyo Cancelled (2005)
  • Solo (2009)
  • Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi (2014)
  • Numerous essays (Granta, The Guardian, New Statesman, etc.)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
layered depiction of the contemporary worlduse of allegorical and mythic motifsblend of reportage-style inquiry with literary narration
Recurring Motifs
globalizationcitiesmigration and bordersthe crisis or demise of the nation-state

Legacy

Rana Dasgupta is internationally recognized for his literary and non-fiction work on globalization and urbanization. With awards for Solo and Capital, he has contributed influential perspectives on contemporary global life.

Trivia

  • Born in Canterbury in 1971 and raised in Cambridge.
  • Solo won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in 2010.
  • Capital received multiple awards (2017) and Rana Dasgupta won a Windham–Campbell Prize in 2025.