Megha Majumdar (born 1987/1988) is an Indian novelist who lives in New York City. Her debut novel, '' A Burning'', was a ''New York Times'' best seller, and in 2022 won a

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Mrs. (American English) or Mrs (British English; standard E ...

Early life

Majumdar was born in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India. In 2006, she moved to the United States to study

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. She went on to complete her graduate studies at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, earning a master's degree in anthropology.

Career

Majumdar's debut novel, '' A Burning,'' was released in 2020 and became a ''New York Times'' best seller. Ron Charles of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote Majumdar "demonstrates an uncanny ability to capture the vast scope of a tumultuous society by attending to the hopes and fears of people living on the margins. The effect is transporting, often thrilling, finally harrowing. It’s no wonder this propulsive novel was chosen for the Today Show book club and leaped immediately onto the bestseller list." In ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', Naina Bajekal described the novel as "a powerful corrective to the political narratives that have dominated in contemporary India." In 2020, Majumdar told ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', "I hope the questions ask in the bookdon’t appear contained in India and...that readers here are able to think of contemporary America too." Majumdar's writing style has been compared to that of Jhumpa Lahiri and Yaa Gyasi. At the time of her novel's publication, Majumdar worked as an editor at Catapult Books in New York City. In 2021, Majumdar was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Catapult, and her authors included Matthew Salesses, Randa Jarrar, Ruby Hamad, Sindya Bhanoo and Ye Chun. In May 2022, she left the position to focus on her writing and teaching.

Honors and awards

''A Burning'' was shortlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction, and in April 2022 Majumdar won a

Bibliography

* ''A Burning'', New York :

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, 2020.

References

External links

Megha Majumdar
at Penguin India {{DEFAULTSORT:Majumdar, Megha Living people 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian writers Indian emigrants to the United States Writers from Kolkata Writers from New York City Harvard University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)