Amit Chaudhuri

Description

Thursday 15 November 2007 at 5.00pm
CRASSH, Mill Lane, Cambridge

Peter McDonald (University of Oxford) in conversation with Amit Chaudhuri about his work, incorporating criticism, writing, and music.

Amit Chaudhuri is one of India's leading writers and novelists. His books include A Strange and Sublime Address (1991), winner of the Betty Trask Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best First Book). His second novel, Afternoon Raag (1993), won both the Southern Arts Literature Prize and the Encore Award (for best second novel of the year). It was followed by Freedom Song (1998), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction) in 2000. His recent books include A New World (2000) and Real Time (2002), a collection of short stories set in Bombay and Calcutta. He is also the author of E-minor, a memoir written in verse, and D. H. Lawrence and 'Difference': Postcoloniality and the Poetry of the Present (2003). His most recent book is St Cyril Road and Other Poems (2005). He is also the editor of the Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature (2004).

Besides fiction, poetry, and criticism, Amit Chaudhuri is an acclaimed vocalist and musician who has performed all over the world. His This is Not Fusion project in experimental music brings together raga with jazz, rock, and the blues along with songs composed and sung by himself. His music has been performed in Calcutta, Delhi, Berlin, Lille, London, Brussels, and Norwich. His CD, This is Not Fusion, has been hailed as a landmark in the creation of a new genre. Further information about his music project and a listening experience can be found at here.

Amit Chaudhuri is currently Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where he teaches creative writing. He has previously held positions as Creative Arts Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, and at Cambridge, where he held the Harper Wood Studentship for English Literature and Poetry at St. John's, as well as visiting appointments at Columbia University and a Guest Professorship at the Freie University, Berlin.

Peter D. McDonald teaches world literatures in English from the Victorian period to the present day. His research interests lie primarily in the history of the category of the literary. His books include British Literary Culture and Publishing Practice, 1880-1914 (1997) and the co-edited volume, Making Meaning: 'Printers of the Mind' and Other Essays by D F McKenzie ( 2002). In addition, he has co-edited with Derek Attridge a special issue of the journal Interventions ( 2002) on J M Coetzee's Disgrace.

The event is free to attend and open to everyone. There will be a reception after the talk.