Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, India, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of several books of nonfiction and a novel. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he is the Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. In 2016, Kumar was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (General Nonfiction) as well as a Ford Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists.
Website: amitavakumar.com. Twitter: @amitavakumar

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Reviews of Immigrant, Montana

  • “The plot of Kumar’s droll and exhilarating second novel (following Nobody Does the Right Thing) may feel familiar at first, but this coming-of-age-in-the-city story is bolstered by the author’s captivating prose, which keeps it consistently surprising and hilarious” – In Publishers Weekly
  • “The new book falls between genres. Its aim is not to tell a story, exactly, but to create a portrait of a mind moving uneasily between a new, chosen culture and the one left behind” – In the New Yorker

Interviews:

  • “It tells the story of a young man who moves in the 1990s from India to America, where he becomes infatuated with women and is mentored by a man who conspires to kidnap Henry Kissinger” – In the Straight
  • “Amitava Kumar inspired by eight grey wolves to write about immigration in America’s heartland – In the Toronto Star

Immigrant, Montana

A remarkable novel – reminiscent of John Berger, W. G. Sebald, and Teju Cole – about a young, new immigrant to the United States in search of love: between sexes and across cultural divides. His wry, vivid perception of the world he’s making his own, and the brilliant melding of story and reportage, anecdote and annotation, picture, and text give us a singularly engaging, insightful, and moving novel – one that explores the varieties and vagaries of cultural misunderstanding, but is, as well, an investigation of love.

All events with Amitava Kumar

1 PM
A Conversation with Amitava Kumar and Paula Saunders
Oct 14 @ 1 PM MT - 2:15 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2nd Street SW
7 PM
Wordfest Presents Sheila Heti, Amitava Kumar & Tommy Orange
Oct 13 @ 7 PM MT - 8:30 PM MT

DJD Dance Centre

111 12 Ave SE