Hari Kunzru
| Hari Kunzru | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru 1969 (age 42–43) London, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | author, journalist |
| Nationality | British Indian of Kashmiri Pandit origin |
Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (Kashmiri: हरी मोहन नाथ कुंज़रू (Devanagari), ہری موہن ناتھ کنزرو (Nastaleeq)) (born 1969) is a British Indian novelist and journalist of Kashmiri Pandit origin, author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men.[1] His work has been translated into twenty languages.
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[edit] Early life
Kunzru was born in London and grew up in Essex. He was educated at Bancroft's School, Essex. He studied English at Wadham College, Oxford, then gained an MA in Philosophy and Literature from University of Warwick.
[edit] Career
From 1995 to 1997 he worked on Wired UK. He has worked as a travel journalist since 1998, writing for such newspapers as The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, was travel correspondent for Time Out magazine, and worked as a TV presenter interviewing artists for the Sky TV electronic arts programme The Lounge. From 1999–2004 he was also music editor of Wallpaper* magazine and since 1995 he has been a contributing editor to 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.[1] His second novel, Transmission, was published in the summer of 2004. In 2005 he published the short story collection Noise. His third novel, My Revolutions, was published in August 2007. His fourth novel, Gods Without Men, was released in August 2011.[1] Set in the American south-west, it is a fractured story about multiple characters across time. It has been compared to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.[1]
Although he was also awarded The John Llewellyn Rhys prize for writers under 35, the second oldest literary prize in the UK, he 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. In a statement read out on his behalf, he stated, "As the child of an immigrant, I am only too aware of the poisonous effect of the Mail's editorial line... The atmosphere of prejudice it fosters translates into violence, and I have no wish to profit from it." He further went on to recommend that the award money be donated to the charity Refugee Council (UK).
He is Deputy President of English PEN.
In 2009, he donated the short story "Kaltes klares Wasser" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Kunzru's story was published in the Water collection.[2]
He, along with Ruchir Joshi, Jeet Thayil and Amitava Kumar, risked arrest by reading excerpts from Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India, at the 2012 Jaipur Literature Festival.[3] 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".[4]
[edit] Honors
- 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
- 2005: Lire "50 écrivains pour demain"
[edit] Bibliography
- 2003. The Impressionist. London: Penguin.
- 2005. Noise. London: Penguin.
- 2005. Transmission. London: Penguin.
- 2007. My Revolutions. London: Penguin.
- 2011. Gods Without Men London: Penguin.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d David Robinson. "Interview: Hari Kunzru, author", scotsman.com, 29 July 2011
- ^ Oxfam: Ox-Tales
- ^ Singh, Akhilesh Kumar; Chowdhury, Shreya Roy (23 January 2012). "Salman Rushdie shadow on Jaipur Literature Festival: 4 authors who read from 'The Satanic Verses' sent packing". The Times of India. http://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. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ Kunzru, Hari (22 January 2012). "Why I quoted from The Satanic Verses". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/22/i-quoted-satanic-verses-suport-rushdie?intcmp=239. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
