Jhumpa Lahiri, professor of creative writing at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been selected to receive the 2017 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story from the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The prize committee stated that “Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the most respected and influential writers working today. Her short stories are known for their exploration of the cultural dissonance experienced by immigrants caught between their Indian birthplace and their adopted home.”
Professor Lahiri will be honored on December 8 at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where she will read from one of her stories.
Professor Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her short story collection Interpreter of Maladies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000). She has also authored other story collections, novels and nonfiction.
A native of London, Dr. Lahiri moved to the United States when she was a young girl. She is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City. Professor Lahiri holds master’s degree in English, a master of fine arts degree in creative writing, a master’s degree in comparative literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies, all from Boston University.