Jhumpa Lahiri Biography

Jhumpa Lahiri is an American author of Indian origin, who won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut short story collection ‘Interpreter of Maladies’. Over the following decade and a half she has established herself as one of the most influential authors of her times. Jhumpa was born in London to Bengali immigrant parents and her family moved to the United States when she was only two. She considers herself to be an American but her novels and books have all drawn heavily from the lives of immigrants in the United States. She was educated in the United States and studied English literature and creative writing before going to obtain a doctorate in Renaissance Studies. She found it difficult to find publishers for her initial works but following the success of her very first book, ‘Interpreter of Maladies’, she did not have to look back anymore. She followed it up with her first novel ‘The Namesake’, which was adapted into an eponymous film. She then followed it up with another collection of short stories titled ‘Unaccustomed Earth’. Her second novel ‘The Lowlands’ was also a successful one and was short listed for several awards.