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{{Short description|British novelist and journalist}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{infobox writer 
| name = Hari Kunzru
| image = Hari Kunzru B283441 (cropped2).jpg
| alt =
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| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1969}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Author, journalist
| language = English
| alma_mater = [[Wadham College, Oxford]] <br /> [[Warwick University]]
| period =
| genre = [[Literary fiction]]
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks = ''Gods without Men'' <br /> ''White Tears'' <br /> ''Red Pill''
| spouse = [[Katie Kitamura]]
| partner =
| children = 2<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/katie-kitamura-a-separation-book-review/ |title=Kunzru-Kitamura children |access-date=13 November 2017 |archive-date=22 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422173314/https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/katie-kitamura-a-separation-book-review/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature =
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| website = {{URL|harikunzru.com}}
| portaldisp =
}}
{{Cyber anthropology|related}}
'''Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru''' (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels ''[[The Impressionist]]'', ''[[Transmission (novel)|Transmission]]'', ''My Revolutions'', ''[[Gods Without Men]]'', ''White Tears'',<ref name=robinson>David Robinson. [http://living.scotsman.com/books/Interview-Hari-Kunzru-author.6809838.jp?articlepage=1 "Interview: Hari Kunzru, author"], scotsman.com, 29 July 2011</ref> ''Red Pill'', and ''Blue Ruin''. His work has been translated into 20 languages.

== Early life and education ==
Kunzru was born in [[London, England]], to an Indian father of [[Kashmiri Pandit]] descent and a British mother.<ref name=ny>{{cite magazine |title=Staring into the Void with Hari Kunzru |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/hari-kunzru-gods-without-men.html |first=Rollo |last=Romig |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |location=New York City |date=13 March 2012 |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref> He grew up in [[Essex, England|Essex]] and was educated at [[Bancroft's School]]. He studied English at [[Wadham College, Oxford]], then gained an MA in Philosophy and Literature from [[University of Warwick]]. In his teens, Kunzru decided that he did not believe in formal religion or God, and is "opposed to how religion is used to police people".<ref name=ny />

== Career ==
From 1995 to 1997, Kunzru worked on ''[[Wired magazine|Wired UK]]''. Since 1998, he has worked as a travel journalist, writing for such newspapers as ''[[The Guardian]]'' and ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''. He was a travel correspondent for ''[[Time Out (company)|Time Out]]'' magazine, and worked as a TV presenter interviewing artists for the [[British Sky Broadcasting|Sky TV]] electronic arts programme ''The Lounge''. From 1999 to 2004 he was also music editor of ''[[Wallpaper*]]'' magazine, and since 1995 he has been a contributing editor to ''[[Mute Magazine|Mute]]'', the culture and technology magazine. His first novel, ''The Impressionist'' (2003), had a £1 million-plus advance and was well received critically with excellent sales.<ref name=robinson /> His second novel, ''[[Transmission (novel)|Transmission]]'', was published in 2004. In 2005 he published the short-story collection ''Noise''. His third novel, ''My Revolutions'', was published in 2007. His fourth novel, ''Gods Without Men'', was released in 2011.<ref name=robinson /> Set in the American southwest, it is a fractured story about multiple characters across time. It has been compared to [[David Mitchell (author)|David Mitchell]]'s ''[[Cloud Atlas (novel)|Cloud Atlas]]''.<ref name=robinson /> His novel ''Blue Ruin'' appeared in May 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Garner |first=Dwight |title=A Portrait of the Art World Elite, Painted With a Heavy: Hari Kunzru examines the ties between art and wealth in a new novel, Blue Ruin' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/books/review/hari-kunzru-blue-ruin.html |access-date=November 2, 2024 |work=The New York Times Book Review |date=6 May 2024 |page=11 |volume=173 |issn=0028-7806}}</ref>

In 2004 the "supersonic supernatural drama" [[Sound Mirrors]] was dramatised as part of the [[BBC Radio 3]] drama strand, The Wire. It was a collaboration between Kunzru and DJ producers [[Coldcut]].

Kunzru was awarded The [[John Llewellyn Rhys prize]] for writers under 35, the second-oldest literary prize in the UK, but turned it down on the grounds that it was backed by the ''[[Mail on Sunday]]'' whose "hostility towards black and Asian people" he felt was unacceptable.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liao |first1=Pei-chen |title=Crossing the Borders of the Body Politic after 9/11: The Virus Metaphor and Autoimmunity in Hari Kunzru's Transmission |date=2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=London |isbn=978-1-349-34594-6 |page=53 |doi=10.1057/9781137 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137 |access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref>

He is Deputy President of English [[International PEN|PEN]]. He also teaches in the creative writing program at [[New York University]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2026/02/another-london-situationists-hari-kunzru/ |title=Another London|access-date=2026-01-28}}</ref>

In 2009, he donated the short story "''Kaltes klares Wasser''" to Oxfam's [[Ox-Tales]] project, four collections of UK stories by 38 authors. Kunzru's story was published in the Water collection.<ref>[http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html Oxfam: Ox-Tales] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318100114/http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html |date=18 March 2012 }}</ref>

In 2012, at the [[Jaipur Literature Festival]],<ref>{{cite web |url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Salman-Rushdie-shadow-on-Jaipur-Literature-Festival-4-authors-who-read-from-The-Satanic-Verses-sent-packing/articleshow/11595228.cms|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120205203714/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-23/jaipur/30655383_1_jaipur-literature-festival-hari-kunzru-organizers|url-status= live|archive-date= 5 February 2012|title= Salman Rushdie shadow on Jaipur Literature Festival: 4 authors who read from 'The Satanic Verses' sent packing|author1=Singh, Akhilesh Kumar |author2=Chowdhury, Shreya Roy |date= 23 January 2012|work= [[The Times of India]]|access-date=23 January 2012}}</ref> Kunzru and three other authors, [[Ruchir Joshi]], [[Jeet Thayil]], and [[Amitava Kumar]], risked arrest by reading excerpts from [[Salman Rushdie]]'s ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'', which remains unpublished in India due to fear of controversy. Kunzru later wrote, "Our intention was not to offend anyone's religious sensibilities, but to give a voice to a writer who had been silenced by a death threat."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/22/i-quoted-satanic-verses-suport-rushdie?intcmp=239|title= Why I quoted from The Satanic Verses|author= Kunzru, Hari|date= 22 January 2012|work= The Guardian|access-date=22 January 2012}}</ref> The reading drew sharp criticism from Muslim groups as a deliberately provocative move to gain publicity for the four authors. Kunzru admitted in an interview that the festival organizers asked him to leave as his presence was likely to "inflame an already volatile situation."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120205203714/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-23/jaipur/30655383_1_jaipur-literature-festival-hari-kunzru-organizers Salman Rushdie shadow on Jaipur Literature Festival: 4 authors who read from 'The Satanic Verses' sent packing, Times of India, Jan 23, 2012]</ref>

In 2016, Kunzru visited [[Israel]], as part of a project by the "[[Breaking the Silence (organization)|Breaking the Silence]]" organization, to write an article for a book on the [[Israeli occupation]], to mark the 50th anniversary of the [[Six-Day War]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Renowned Authors Learn About Occupation Firsthand in Breaking the Silence Tour |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-04-18/ty-article/u-s-literary-stars-go-on-breaking-the-silence-tour/0000017f-f0fd-dc28-a17f-fcffa9330000 |last1=Zeveloff |first1=Naomi |author2-link=The Forward |date=2016-04-18 |work=[[Haaretz]] |last2=The Forward}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Leading authors to write about visiting Israel and the occupied territories |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/22/leading-authors-to-write-about-visiting-israel-and-the-occupied-territories |last=Cain |first=Sian |date=2016-02-17 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> The book was edited by [[Michael Chabon]] and [[Ayelet Waldman]], and published in 2017 under the title ''Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/kingdom-of-olives-and-ash-michael-chabonayelet-waldman?variant=32207717433378 |title=Kingdom of Olives and Ash Writers Confront the Occupation By Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman |access-date=2022-08-18}}</ref> During the Gaza War, he announced that he supports a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. He was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11KaIIavJWoaoyA5d969dk1MbgH6mRgaC7FTmNb-2tpw/viewform?pli=1&pli=1&pli=1&edit_requested=true/|title=Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions|access-date= October 29, 2024}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Kunzru is married to novelist [[Katie Kitamura]], and the couple have two children.<ref>{{cite news |title=Author Hari Kunzru on the culture wars, meth, and his ambitious new novel, ''Gods Without Men'' |url=http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/null/2012/03/5437193/author-hari-kunzru-culture-wars-meth-and-his-ambitious-new-novel-gods-w |first=Jacob |last=Silverman |location=Chelsea, United States |date=9 March 2012 |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408214329/http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/null/2012/03/5437193/author-hari-kunzru-culture-wars-meth-and-his-ambitious-new-novel-gods-w |archive-date=8 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kunzru is fascinated by [[UFO]]s and as a youngster often imagined a close-encounter experience with one.<ref name=granta>{{cite web |title=Interview: Hari Kunzru |url=http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Interview-Hari-Kunzru |publisher=granta.com |first=Ted |last=Hodgekinson |date=10 March 2012 |access-date=21 July 2012}}</ref>

== Honours ==
*1999: ''The Observer'' Young Travel Writer of the Year
*2002: [[Betty Trask Award]], ''The Impressionist''
*2003: [[Somerset Maugham Award]], ''The Impressionist''
*2003: ''[[Granta]]'' "Best of Young British Novelists" (one of twenty)
*2005: [[New York Times Notable Book of the Year]], ''[[Transmission (novel)|Transmission]]''
*2005: ''[[Lire (magazine)|Lire]]'' "50 écrivains pour demain"
*2014: Elected [[Royal Society of Literature|Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-01 |title=Kunzru, Hari |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/hari-kunzru/,%20https://rsliterature.org/fellows/hari-kunzru/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Royal Society of Literature |language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list |date=July 2025}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
=== Books ===
* 2002: ''[[The Impressionist]]''. London: Hamish Hamilton. {{ISBN|9780241141694}}, {{OCLC|953648874}}
* 2004: ''[[Transmission (novel)|Transmission]]''. London: Hamish Hamilton. {{ISBN|9780141020952}}, {{OCLC|485832981}}
* 2005: ''Noise''. London: Penguin. {{ISBN|9780141023106}}, {{OCLC|835475787}}
* 2007: ''My Revolutions''. London: Penguin. {{OCLC|920237941}}
* 2011: ''[[Gods Without Men]]''. London: Penguin. {{ISBN|9780307946973}}, {{OCLC|864345036}}
* 2013: ''Memory Palace''. London: Victoria and Albert Museum. {{ISBN|9781851777365}}
* 2014: ''Twice Upon a Time: Listening to New York''. New York: Atavist. {{ISBN|9780671456337}}
* 2017: ''[[White Tears]]'', New York: Knopf {{ISBN|9781101973219}}, {{OCLC|989962274}}
* 2020: ''Red Pill'', New York: Knopf {{ISBN|9780451493712}}, {{OCLC|1129915075}}
* 2024: ''Blue Ruin'', London: Scribner {{ISBN|9780593801376}}, {{OCLC|1388209656}}
===Essays and reporting===
* {{cite journal  |date=September 2021 |title=Death valley |department=Easy Chair |journal=Harper's Magazine |volume=343 |issue=2056 |pages=5–7 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2021/09/death-valley-september-11-2001 |url-access=limited }}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|http://www.harikunzru.com/}}
* {{British council|id=hari-kunzru|name=Hari Kunzru}}
* [http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/matar_kunzru_10_15_11/ "Libya's Reluctant Spokesman: Hari Kunzru interviews Hisham Matar" – Guernica: A Magazine of Art and Politics]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L1o5zUWkOM Video of Hari Kunzru on Sky TV]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081202001810/http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/articles/blogs-shanghai/shanghai-book-club/live-bloging-with-hari-kunzru-my-revolutions/ Podcast of Hari Kunzru discussing "My Revolutions" at the Shanghai International Literary Festival]
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/writloud/Writers.htm#K Podcast of Hari Kunzru reading from "My Revolutions" at writLOUD, London]
* [https://news.artnet.com/multimedia/a-damning-appraisal-of-art-world-elitism-2555010 Podcast] of Hari Kunzru discussing Blue Ruin on [[Artnet]]'s The Art Angle, October 17, 2024.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunzru, Hari}}
[[Category:1969 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century English male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick]]
[[Category:British Book Award winners]]
[[Category:British people of Kashmiri descent]]
[[Category:English male journalists]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:English people of Kashmiri descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Harper's Magazine people]]
[[Category:Kashmiri Pandits]]
[[Category:Kashmiri writers]]
[[Category:People educated at Bancroft's School]]
[[Category:English atheists]]
[[Category:Novelists from London]]
[[Category:Writers from Essex]]

Hari Kunzru - Revision history

Vineettandon at 22:04, 28 January 2026