'Sentences that breathe and shift'

 

“I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.” –  Jhumpa Lahiri

 

Born in London on this date in 1967, Lahiri is an Indian-American author and creative writing professor (at Barnard, her alma mater).  She is winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her short story collection – Interpreter of Maladies – one of the few story “collections” ever so-honored.  Her novel The Namesake, also adapted as a movie, is equally wonderful.  

 

And her most recent novel, The Lowland, is a “must read” for those who want to “know” the modern-day U.S. immigrant experience.  It was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize and a National Book Award for Fiction.  After living several years in Italy, Lahiri authored Roman Stories (in 2023), and she served as editor and translator of the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories, a collection by 40 different Italian writers.

 

The first Indian-American to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, she is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal for her writing. 

 

“In fiction, plenty (of words) do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabling them to speak,” Lahiri said.  “But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil.”