Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English at Columbia University, Director of the Creative Writing Program, and affiliated faculty in Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, and Italian. She also serves as a Senior Fellow at The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies. Her roles include editorial work for The New Yorker and contributions to literary organizations such as the Fine Arts Work Center and the Venice Film Festival jury.

Education: B.A. in English (Barnard College, magna cum laude), followed by multiple M.A. degrees and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies from Boston University. She has received honorary degrees from institutions like the University of Bologna and Williams College.

Research focuses on literary translation, Italian literature, and the exploration of diasporic identities. Her work bridges English and Italian, with notable publications in both languages, including Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, and translated works by Domenico Starnone. She is co-translating Ovid’s Metamorphoses for The Modern Library.

Award Highlights: Pulitzer Prize (2000), Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (2007), and induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her translations and critical essays have garnered global acclaim.

Advising & Grants: Founded Princeton’s Translator-in-Residence program and contributed to academic initiatives like the Surrealist course on Leonora Carrington. Collaborates with institutions such as the Italian literary journal Nuovi Argomenti.

Labs/Teams: Engaged with interdisciplinary projects at Columbia’s Italian Academy, emphasizing cross-cultural literary exchange.