Rohit Singh at 15:56, 16 October 2025

2025-10-16T15:56:39Z

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{{Short description|Indian poet and classical singer (born 1962)}}
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[[File:Amit Chaudhuri (Photo by Geoff Pugh) .jpg|thumb|Amit Chaudhuri]]
'''Amit Chaudhuri''' (born 15 May 1962) is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from [[India]]. He is currently a professor of creative writing at [[Ashoka University]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ashoka.edu.in/faculty#!/amit-chaudhuri-1670|title = Faculty/Staff}}</ref>

He was previously professor of contemporary literature at the [[University of East Anglia]] from 2006 to 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uea.ac.uk/literature/about-us/creative-writing/your-teachers|title=Your Teachers - UEA|website=uea.ac.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-11-18}}</ref> In 2013, he was awarded the Infosys Prize for outstanding contribution to the humanities in Literary Studies<ref>{{Cite web |title=Infosys Prize - Laureates 2012 - Prof. Amit Chaudhuri |url=https://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/laureates/2012/amit-chaudhuri.asp#:~:text=The%20Infosys%20Prize%20for%20Humanities,a%20probing%20sense%20of%20detail |access-date=2021-07-06 |website=www.infosys-science-foundation.com}}</ref>

In January 2018, Chaudhuri began writing a series for ''[[The Paris Review]]'' titled ''The Moment''.<ref>{{cite web |date=23 January 2018 |title=The Paris Review - The Moment of the Houses |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/23/the-moment-of-the-houses/}}</ref> He also wrote an occasional column, "Telling Tales", for ''[[The Telegraph (Kolkata)|The Telegraph]]''.<ref>Samhita Chakraborty, [https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/there-s-something-about-a-calcutta-childhood-talking-tales-with-amit-chaudhuri/cid/1288995 'There's something about a Calcutta childhood' Talking Tales with Amit Chaudhuri], ''The Telegraph'', 19 February 2014. Accessed 30 August 2020.</ref>

==Personal life==
Amit Chaudhuri was born in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] (renamed [[Kolkata]]) in 1962 and grew up in [[Mumbai|Bombay]] (renamed [[Mumbai]]). {{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} He took his first degree in English literature from [[University College London]], and wrote his doctoral dissertation on [[D. H. Lawrence]]'s poetry at [[Balliol College, Oxford]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

He is married to [[Rosinka Chaudhuri]], Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta|url=https://www.cssscal.org/faculty_rosinka_chaudhuri.php|access-date=2020-06-18|website=cssscal.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=First ever Global South professor announced {{!}} University of Oxford|url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-10-23-first-ever-global-south-professor-announced|access-date=2020-06-18|website=ox.ac.uk|date=23 October 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

==Music==
Chaudhuri is a singer in the North Indian classical tradition, who has performed internationally.<ref name="Donnell2002"/> He learned singing from his mother, Bijoya Chaudhuri, and from the late Pandit Govind Prasad Jaipurwale<ref>{{Cite web|title=Amit Chaudhuri {{!}} Outlook India Magazine|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/amit-chaudhuri/288265|access-date=2020-06-17|website=www.outlookindia.com/}}</ref> of the Kunwar Shyam gharana

==Awards and honours==
*1991 [[Betty Trask Award]] and [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]] for Best First Book for ''A Strange and Sublime Address''<ref name="Donnell2002">{{cite book|author=Alex Tickell|editor-link=Alison Donnell|editor=Alison Donnell|title=Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&pg=PA72|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-70025-7|page=72|chapter=Chauduri, Amit}}</ref>
*1994 [[Encore Award]] and Southern Arts Literature Prize, ''Afternoon Raag''<ref name="Donnell2002"/>
*2009 Elected Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Society of Literature » Amit Chaudhuri |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellow/amit-chaudhuri-3/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051603/https://rsliterature.org/fellow/amit-chaudhuri-3/ |archive-date=19 November 2018 |access-date=2018-11-18 |website=rsliterature.org |language=en-GB}}</ref>
*2012 [[Infosys Prize]] for the Humanities in Literary Studies<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/media-room/press-release-archive/-/asset_publisher/a2jEGMiFHPhv/content/uea-professor-amit-chaudhuri-wins-30-000-literary-prize?inheritRedirect=false|title=UEA professor Amit Chaudhuri wins £30,000 literary prize - Press Release Archive - UEA|website=uea.ac.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-11-18}}</ref>
*2020 Honorary Fellow, Modern Language Association (MLA)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Honorary Members and Fellows |url=https://www.mla.org/Resources/Career/MLA-Grants-and-Awards/Honorary-Members-and-Fellows |access-date=2020-09-21 |website=Modern Language Association |language=en}}</ref>
*2022 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Biography, ''Finding the Raga.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 August 2022 |title=James Tait Prize |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/university-of-edinburgh-writers-william-golding-ian-mcewan-john-le-carre-b2151945.html?amp |website=[[Independent.co.uk]]}}</ref>''
==Bibliography==

===Novels===
*''A strange and sublime address''. Penguin, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-143-41944-0}}
*''Afternoon Raag''. Heinemann, 1993, {{ISBN|978-0-434-12349-0}} The book won the Encore Award.<ref name="Long, short and beautifully formed">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Karl |date=2011-10-23 |title=BOOK REVIEW / Long, short and beautifully formed: 'Afternoon Raag' - Amit Chaudhuri |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/book-review-long-short-and-beautifully-formed-afternoon-raag-amit-chaudhuri-heinemann-13-99-pounds-grandmother-s-tale-r-k-narayan-heinemann-9-99-pounds-1484192.html |access-date=2021-07-06 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> The 25th anniversary edition was published by Penguin Random House India in 2019 with a foreword by James Wood.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wood |first=James |date=8 June 2019 |title='Afternoon Raag' reminds us Amit Chaudhuri wrote 'autofiction' 25 years before it became a trend |url=https://scroll.in/article/926179/afternoon-raag-reminds-us-amit-chaudhuri-wrote-autofiction-25-years-before-it-became-a-trend |access-date=2021-07-06 |website=Scroll.in |language=en-US}}</ref>
*''Freedom Song''. Picador, 1998; Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-375-40427-6}} [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0599/chaudhuri/excerpt.html excerpt]
*{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z-Fke2tyFX8C&q=amit+chaudhuri| title=A New World| publisher= Picador| year= 2000|isbn=978-0-375-41093-2}}; Random House Digital, Inc., 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-375-72480-0}}
*{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTUMN00OYoYC&q=amit+chaudhuri| title=The Immortals| publisher= Picador| year= 2009| isbn=978-0-307-27022-1}}
*{{cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=Amit |author-mask=1 |title=[[Odysseus Abroad]] |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |year=2015}}
* Friend of My Youth, 2017, Penguin Random House India
* {{cite book | last=Chaudhuri | first=A. | title=Sojourn | publisher=Faber & Faber | year=2022 | isbn=978-0-571-36036-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d0JYEAAAQBAJ | display-authors =0}}

===Collected short stories===
*{{cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=Amit |title=Real time : stories and a reminiscence |publisher=Picador |year=2002}}

===Poetry===
*{{cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=Amit |title=St. Cyril Road and other poems |publisher=Penguin |year=2005}}

===Libretto===
* ''[[Sukanya (opera)|Sukanya]]'', the only opera by [[Ravi Shankar]]

===Non-fiction===
*{{cite book |last=Chaudhuri |first=Amit |title=D. H. Lawrence and 'difference' : postcoloniality and the poetry of the present |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003}}
*''Small Orange Flags'' (Seagull, 2003) {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20070311000351/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/lr/2003/11/02/stories/2003110200200100.htm reviewed]}}
*{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQeN2PoAx2IC&q=amit+chaudhuri| title=Clearing A Space: Reflections on India, Literature and Culture| publisher= Peter Lang| year= 2008| isbn= 978-1-906165-01-7}}
* ''Calcutta: Two Years in the City'', Union Books (2013)
*{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlrEDwAAQBAJ| title=Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music| publisher= New York Review Books| year=2021| isbn=978-1-681-37478-9}}

===Edited anthologies===
*{{cite book |editor-last=Chaudhuri |editor-first=Amit |title=The Picador book of modern Indian literature |publisher=Picador |year=2001}}
*''Memory's Gold: Writings on Calcutta'' (2008)

=== Dissertation ===
Chaudhuri's D.Phil. dissertation at Oxford was published by Clarendon Press as a monograph titled ''D.H. Lawrence and Difference'' in 2003. It was called a "classic" by [[Tom Paulin]] in his preface to the book; [[Terry Eagleton]] wrote in the ''London Review of Books'' that it is "a fine book, which if it had expanded its scope and dug rather deeper might even have been even better".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eagleton |first=Terry |date=2004-02-05 |title=Anti-Humanism |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n03/terry-eagleton/anti-humanism |access-date=2021-07-06 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |issn=0260-9592}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of Indian writers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*{{official website}}
*[https://twitter.com/AmitChaudhuri Amit Chaudhuri] at [[Twitter]]
*{{British council|id=amit-chaudhuri|name=Amit Chaudhuri}}
*[https://www.munzinger.de/search/go/document.jsp?id=18000000569 Amit Chaudhuri] at the [[Munzinger-Archiv]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200716090127/https://lareviewofbooks.org/author-page/amit-chaudhuri/ Amit Chaudhuri] at the ''[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]''
*[http://www.littlemag.com/mar-apr01/amit.html "Surpanakha"], story at ''The Little Magazine''
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20031116103501/http://www.hindu.com/lr/2003/11/02/stories/2003110200200100.htm "An unlikely radical"], ''[[The Hindu]]''
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040314033740/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040116/asp/calcutta/story_2787444.asp "A date with Amit Chaudhuri"], [[The Telegraph (Kolkata)|''The Telegraph'']]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudhuri, Amit}}
[[Category:1962 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:Bengali writers]]
[[Category:English-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:Indian male essayists]]
[[Category:Indian male novelists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English]]
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford|Chauduri, Amit]]

Amit Chaudhuri - Revision history

Rohit Singh at 15:56, 16 October 2025