Amitava Kumar was born in Ara, Bihar, and grew up in the
nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty and
delicious mangoes.
He is the author of Passport Photos (University of California
Press and Penguin-India, 2000), Bombay-London-New York (Routledge and
Penguin-India, 2002) and Husband of a Fanatic (forthcoming from
the New Press and Penguin-India). He has also written a book of poems,
No Tears for the N.R.I. (Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 1996). His
book Passport Photos was the winner of an "Outstanding Book of
the Year" Award from the Myers Program for the Study of Bigotry and
Human Rights in North America. Professor Kumar serves on the editorial
board of several publications and co-edits the web-journal Politics
and Culture. He has edited five books: Class Issues (New
York University Press, 1997), Poetics/Politics (St Martin's Press,
1999), World Bank Literature (University of Minnesota Press,
2002), The Humour and the Pity: Essays on V.S. Naipaul (Buffalo
Books and British Council, 2002), and Away: The Indian Writer as
an Expatriate (Routledge, 2003).
Kumar's academic writing has appeared, among other places, in the following
journals: Critical Inquiry, Cultural Studies, Critical
Quarterly, College Literature, Race and Class, American
Quarterly, Rethinking Marxism, Minnesota Review, Journal
of Advanced Composition, Amerasia Journal, and Modern
Fiction Studies. His non-fiction and poetry has been published in
The Nation, Harper's, Kenyon Review, New Statesman,
Transition, American Prospect, The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Toronto Review, Colorlines, Biblio,
Outlook, Frontline, India Today, The Hindu,
Himal, Herald, The Friday Times, The Times of
India, and a variety of other venues. Kumar is the script-writer
and narrator of the prize-winning documentary film, Pure Chutney
(1997). He has been a Barach Fellow at the Wesleyan Writers Festival,
and has received awards from the South Asian Journalists Association
for three consecutive years. In addition, he has been awarded research
fellowships from the NEH, Yale University, SUNY-Stony Brook, Dartmouth
College, and University of California-Riverside.
Kumar is a member of the faculty in the English Department at Penn State
University. He is a resident alien, a non-resident Indian, and a permanent
citizen of the world created by Bollywood.
