BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Award-winning author and 2017 Man Booker Prize nominee Mohsin Hamid will visit Bloomington, Indiana, during his five-day trip to the U.S. this week.
As a guest of Indiana University’s Dhar India Studies Program in the School of Global and International Studies, Hamid will present a free public lecture and reading at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, in the Indiana Memorial Union’s University Club. The acclaimed author, whose work has been translated into 35 languages, will also meet with a group of IU graduate students during the visit.
Hamid is the author of a book of essays, “Discontent and Its Civilizations,” and four novels: “Moth Smoke,” “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia” and “Exit West,” one of just six novels short-listed for the prestigious 2017 Man Booker Prize. “Exit West” explores the themes of globalization, migration and refugees, fear, and the importance of activism.
In a 2017 interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Hamid said: “Yes I’m pro-migrant. I personally tend to believe that there is a right to migration in the same way that there’s a right to love whom you like, to believe what you believe and to say what you want to say.”
Hamid is presenting IU’s 2017 Hrishikesh and Sailabala Bhattacharya Memorial Lecture. Rabi Bhattacharya, professor emeritus of mathematics at IU, endowed the series in honor of his parents.
Hamid’s work has been featured on bestseller lists, adapted for film and selected as winner or finalist of more than 25 awards. This is the second time one of his novels has been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, founded in 1969, which is described as the leading literary award in the English-speaking world. Past winners include Salman Rushdie, Iris Murdoch and Ian McEwan. The 2017 Booker Prize winner will be announced Oct. 18.
One of the other novelists short-listed for this year’s Booker prize, “Lincoln in the Bardo” author George Saunders, visited Bloomington on Sept. 19 as a guest of the College Arts and Humanities Institute.
