ADMISSION:
Admission is free and open to everyone. Reservations required.

Book signing to follow.

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DESCRIPTION:
Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and short story writer Jhumpa Lahiri will be the recipient of the 2026 Chowdhury Prize in Literature, an international award. The prize is awarded annually to honor authors for their past achievements and to help facilitate their efforts to forge new territories. Previous recipients include Christos Ikonomou, Victoria Chang, Zadie Smith, and Claire Dederer.

As a global writer whose career spans nearly 30 years and three continents, Lahiri centers her work on the necessity of identity and connection. Unafraid to push herself and her readers, she writes to build bridges between cultures. From domestic dramas to epic narratives that explore the Indian diaspora, Lahiri’s writing engages both the heart and the mind.

What to Expect: 
The 2026 Chowdhury Prize in Literature will be presented to critically acclaimed author, Jhumpa Lahiri. Following the presentation and a reading of her work, Lahiri will participate in an illuminating conversation with USC English professor, David Ulin. 

Bios:
Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction. On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for The Lowland. In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America. In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University. In 2027, she will publish a new translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis in collaboration with Princeton classics professor Yelena Baraz. 

David Ulin is a USC Professor of the Practice of English, and editor of the journal Air/Light. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including the novel Thirteen Question Method; Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay; and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. The former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times, he has written for The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review, and The New York Times; his essay “Bed” was selected for The Best American Essays 2020. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and Ucross Foundation, as well as a COLA-IMAP Master Artist Grant from the City of Los Angeles. He has also edited The Didion Collection, including Didion: The 1960s and 70s, Didion: The 1980s and 90s, and Didion: Memoirs and Later Writings, for Library of America.

Presented by the USC Department of English in partnership with the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Foundation. Co-sponsored by USC Visions and Voices.

Photo: Laura Sciacovelli