- Amitav Ghosh
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For the banker and RBI Governor, see Amitav Ghosh (banker).
Amitav Ghosh 
Born 11 July 1956 [1]
Calcutta, IndiaOccupation Writer Nationality Indian Alma mater University of Delhi
St Edmund Hall, OxfordGenres Historical fiction Notable work(s) The Glass Palace, Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh (অমিতাভ ঘোষ born July 11, 1956[1]), is a Bengali Indian author best known for his work in the English language.
Contents
Life
Ghosh was born in Calcutta on July 11, 1956, to Lieutenant Colonel Shailendra Chandra Ghosh, a retired officer of the pre-independence Indian Army, and was educated at The Doon School; St. Stephen's College, Delhi; Delhi University; India; and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was awarded a D. Phil. in social anthropology. His first job was at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi.[2]
Ghosh lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Baker, author of the Laura Riding biography In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding (1993) and a senior editor at Little, Brown and Company. They have two children, Lila and Nayan. He has been a Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. In 1999, Ghosh joined the faculty at Queens College, City University of New York, as Distinguished Professor in Comparative Literature. He has also been a visiting professor to the English department of Harvard University since 2005. Ghosh has recently purchased a property in Goa and is intending to return to India. He is working on a trilogy to be published by Penguin Books India.
He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government in 2007.[3] In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature [4]
Work
Ghosh is the author of The Circle of Reason (his 1986 debut novel) , The Shadow Lines (1988), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), The Glass Palace (2000), The Hungry Tide (2004), and Sea of Poppies (2008), the first volume of The Ibis trilogy, set in the 1830s, just before the Opium War, which encapsulates the colonial history of the East. Ghosh's latest work of fiction is River of Smoke (2011), the second volume of The Ibis trilogy.
The Circle of Reason won the Prix Médicis étranger, one of France's top literary awards.[5] The Shadow Lines won the Sahitya Akademi Award & the Ananda Puraskar[6][7] The Calcutta Chromosome won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for 1997.[8] Sea of Poppies was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.[9] It was the co-winner of the Vodafone Crossword Book Award in 2009, as well as co-winner of the 2010 Dan David Prize.[10]
Ghosh's most notable non-fiction writings are In an Antique Land (1992), Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma (1998), Countdown (1999), and The Imam and the Indian (2002, a large collection of essays on different themes such as fundamentalism, history of the novel, Egyptian culture, and literature).
Bibliography
Novels
- The Circle of Reason (1986)
- The Shadow Lines (1988)
- The Calcutta Chromosome (1995)
- The Glass Palace (2000)
- The Hungry Tide (2005)
- Sea of Poppies (2008)
- River of Smoke (2011)
Non-Fiction
- In an Antique Land (1992)
- Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma (1998; Essays)
- Countdown (1999)
- The Imam and the Indian (2002; Essays)
- Incendiary Circumstances (2006; Essays)
External links
- Official website
- Excerpt from River of Smoke in Guernica Magazine
- Sea of Poppies at Farrar, Straus and Giroux site
- Amitav Ghosh in Emory University Site
- Interview with Amitav Ghosh on CNN-IBN/ibnlive.com on his book Sea of Poppies
- Amitav Ghosh's Blog on Indipepal
References
- ^ a b Ghosh, Amitav, Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ http://www.inlaksfoundation.org/Inlaks-Alumni-List.asp?sb=Anthropology&currpage=1&sort=subj&stat=old
- ^ http://india.gov.in/hindi/myindia/Padma%20Awards.pdf
- ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ "Amitav Ghosh re-emerges with Sea of Poppies". The Hindu (Chennai, India). May 24, 2008. http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/24/stories/2008052461680200.htm.
- ^ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/amitav-ghosh/
- ^ http://www.indiapicks.com/Literature/Sahitya_Academy/SA_English.htm
- ^ http://www.clarkeaward.com/index.php?view=article&catid=34%3APrevious+Winners&id=59%3A1997+Winner&option=com_content&Itemid=58
- ^ "First-timers seeking Booker glory". BBC News. September 9, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7606147.stm.
- ^ Laureates 2010 - 2010 Present - Literature: Rendition of the 20th Century - Amitav Ghosh
Works by Amitav Ghosh Novels The Circle of Reason (1986) · The Shadow Lines (1988) · The Calcutta Chromosome (1995) · The Glass Palace (2000) · The Hungry Tide (2004) · Sea of Poppies (2008) · River of Smoke (2011)Non-Fiction & Essays In an Antique Land (1992) · Dancing in Cambodia and At Large in Burma (1998) · Countdown (1999) · The Imam and the Indian (2002) · Incendiary Circumstances (2006)Categories:- 1956 births
- Living people
- Indian emigrants to the United States
- Indian novelists
- People from Kolkata
- Doscos
- Bengali writers
- Harvard University staff
- American writers of Indian descent
- Recipients of the Padma Shri
- Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award
- Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
- St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- Prix Médicis étranger winners
- University of Delhi alumni
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