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Amitava Kumar
Amitava Kumar is an Indian writer and journalist who is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Kumar was born in the city of Arrah in the Indian state of Bihar on 17 March 1963. He grew up close to his birthplace in Patna, also in Bihar. There he spent his formative years at St Michael's High School. In India, Kumar earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Hindu College, Delhi University in 1984. He holds two master's degrees in Linguistics and Literature from Delhi University (1986) and Syracuse University (1988) respectively. In 1993, he received his doctoral degree from the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. He lives with his family in Poughkeepsie, New York. Kumar is the author of several books of non-fiction and three novels. In 2016, Amitava Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) as well as a Ford Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists. He has also been awarded writing residences by Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the Norman Mailer Writing Center, Writers Omi at Ledig House, and the Lannan Foundation. Kumar lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is the Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. Kumar’s new novel, A Time Outside This Time, was published in October, 2021 Aleph in India. His last novel Immigrant, Montana: A Novel, published by Faber in the UK, Knopf in the US, and in translation by other publishers worldwide, was named a notable book of the year by The New
![Amitava Kumar's Diary](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fbook.0614cbf5.png&w=384&q=75)
![Amitava Kumar's Diary](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fbook.0614cbf5.png&w=256&q=75)
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The Blue Book : A Writer's Journal
“In those terrible days of the lockdown during the pandemic, we were all waiting. We were waiting for things to be all right. And one day, they will indeed be all right. But the dead will never come back. The businesses that have closed and will not
![The Blue Book : A Writer's Journal](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FTheBlueBook%253AAWriter%2527sJournal_-Amitava-Kumar_10093492_1660045519755.jpg&w=256&q=75)
The Blue Book : A Writer's Journal
“In those terrible days of the lockdown during the pandemic, we were all waiting. We were waiting for things to be all right. And one day, they will indeed be all right. But the dead will never come back. The businesses that have closed and will not
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Bombay London New York
People travel, books do too. Bombay-London-New York is a way of measuring the distances that people and books travel. Interweaving the personal and professional, Amitava Kumar blurs the line between literary criticism and memoir in this lucid chronic
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Bombay London New York
People travel, books do too. Bombay-London-New York is a way of measuring the distances that people and books travel. Interweaving the personal and professional, Amitava Kumar blurs the line between literary criticism and memoir in this lucid chronic
![Husband Of A Fanatic](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FHusbandOfAFanatic_-Amitava-Kumar_10093496_1660046615359.jpg&w=384&q=75)
Husband Of A Fanatic
In the summer of 1999, while the Kargil War was being fought, Amitava Kumar married a Pakistani Muslim. That event led to a process of discovery that made Kumar examine the relationship not only between India and Pakistan but also between Hindus and
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Husband Of A Fanatic
In the summer of 1999, while the Kargil War was being fought, Amitava Kumar married a Pakistani Muslim. That event led to a process of discovery that made Kumar examine the relationship not only between India and Pakistan but also between Hindus and
![Immigrant, Montana](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FImmigrant%252CMontana_-Amitava-Kumar_10093502_1660047502487.jpg&w=384&q=75)
Immigrant, Montana
A New York Times Book of the Year Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his books of the year Meet Kailash. Also known as Kalashnikov. Or AK-47. Or just plain AK. His journey from India has taken him to graduate school in New York where he keeps falli
![Immigrant, Montana](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FImmigrant%252CMontana_-Amitava-Kumar_10093502_1660047502487.jpg&w=256&q=75)
Immigrant, Montana
A New York Times Book of the Year Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his books of the year Meet Kailash. Also known as Kalashnikov. Or AK-47. Or just plain AK. His journey from India has taken him to graduate school in New York where he keeps falli
![Evidence of Suspicion: A Writer's Report on the War on Terror](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FEvidenceofSuspicion%253AAWriter%2527sReportontheWaronTerror_-Amitava-Kumar_10093578_1660131194249.jpg&w=384&q=75)
Evidence of Suspicion: A Writer's Report on the War on Terror
Bureaucratic in its convolutions and brutal in its deceptions, the war on terror has had an impact on our lives that we do not yet understand. We sense it. A growing claustrophobia, wariness, suspicion, the stickiness of constant surveillance. But fo
![Evidence of Suspicion: A Writer's Report on the War on Terror](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FEvidenceofSuspicion%253AAWriter%2527sReportontheWaronTerror_-Amitava-Kumar_10093578_1660131194249.jpg&w=256&q=75)
Evidence of Suspicion: A Writer's Report on the War on Terror
Bureaucratic in its convolutions and brutal in its deceptions, the war on terror has had an impact on our lives that we do not yet understand. We sense it. A growing claustrophobia, wariness, suspicion, the stickiness of constant surveillance. But fo
![Lunch With a Bigot: The Writer in the World](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FLunchWithaBigot%253ATheWriterintheWorld_-Amitava-Kumar_10093581_1660132105775.jpg&w=384&q=75)
Lunch With a Bigot: The Writer in the World
To be a writer, Amitava Kumar says, is to be an observer. The twenty-six essays in Lunch With a Bigot are Kumar's observations of the world put into words. A mix of memoir, reportage and criticism, the essays include encounters with writers Salman Ru
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Lunch With a Bigot: The Writer in the World
To be a writer, Amitava Kumar says, is to be an observer. The twenty-six essays in Lunch With a Bigot are Kumar's observations of the world put into words. A mix of memoir, reportage and criticism, the essays include encounters with writers Salman Ru
![Nobody Does the Right Thing: A Novel](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FNobodyDoestheRightThing%253AANovel_-Amitava-Kumar_10093582_1660132901374.jpg&w=384&q=75)
Nobody Does the Right Thing: A Novel
A young poet is killed by her lover, a politician, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Soon afterward, across India in Bombay, an idealistic journalist is hired by a movie director to write a Bollywood screenplay about the murdered poet. Research f
![Nobody Does the Right Thing: A Novel](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshabd.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbooks%2FNobodyDoestheRightThing%253AANovel_-Amitava-Kumar_10093582_1660132901374.jpg&w=256&q=75)
Nobody Does the Right Thing: A Novel
A young poet is killed by her lover, a politician, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Soon afterward, across India in Bombay, an idealistic journalist is hired by a movie director to write a Bollywood screenplay about the murdered poet. Research f
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