Amitava Kumar
@amitava.bsky.social
Writer. Novels include My Beloved Life (Knopf, 2024). Bylines: Granta, Harper's, New Yorker, NYT. Vassar prof. Guggenheim, Cullman Center Fellow.
“Reading is good when it disturbs you.” frontline.thehindu.com/columns/amit...
Amitava Kumar on Books That Shaped Him—And Why Reading Should Hurt a Little
Eminent Indian writer Amitava Kumar opens up about the books that raised him, the ones he gives away, and the ones that still haunt him.
frontline.thehindu.com
July 9, 2025 at 2:14 PM
“Reading is good when it disturbs you.” frontline.thehindu.com/columns/amit...
On #worldenvironmentday, I’m sharing my @GrantaMag piece on the sinking Himalayan town granta.com/sinking-town/
June 5, 2025 at 1:37 PM
On #worldenvironmentday, I’m sharing my @GrantaMag piece on the sinking Himalayan town granta.com/sinking-town/
Why am I still teaching journalism? amitavakumar.substack.com/p/why-am-i-s...
Why Am I Still Teaching Journalism?
A brief report on PEN World Voices Festival
amitavakumar.substack.com
May 5, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Why am I still teaching journalism? amitavakumar.substack.com/p/why-am-i-s...
Three upcoming readings
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/three-acts
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/three-acts
Three Acts
In which I tell you about my upcoming readings
amitavakumar.substack.com
April 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Three upcoming readings
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/three-acts
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/three-acts
Reposted by Amitava Kumar
A new Lydia Millet story about a therapist questioning her line of work in an era of climate disaster, recommended by @amitava.bsky.social
Therapy Is Not a Cure for Climate Disaster - Electric Literature
“Therapist” from ATAVISTS by Lydia Millet, recommended by Amitava Kumar
buff.ly
April 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
A new Lydia Millet story about a therapist questioning her line of work in an era of climate disaster, recommended by @amitava.bsky.social
Reposted by Amitava Kumar
I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories
–
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
-Muriel Rukeyser
#everynightapoem
[Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932]
Most mornings I would be more or less insane
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories
–
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
-Muriel Rukeyser
#everynightapoem
[Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932]
![[Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932 Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam] Tempera on linen. A man in suit and hat in right foreground, walking away; a woman in white blouse and brown skirt, running up the street to reach him. Stately pink mansion and tree-lined street form the picture, ominous dark clouds overhead.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rkgmcmrlwobvdajgjmxlvfya/bafkreic2aacf7rikk4k6hifhwwaftnhkysnmrhfmxb6apvx7r2uknelkrq@jpeg)
March 17, 2025 at 2:20 AM
I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories
–
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
-Muriel Rukeyser
#everynightapoem
[Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932]
Most mornings I would be more or less insane
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories
–
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
-Muriel Rukeyser
#everynightapoem
[Carel Willink, Bad Tidings, 1932]
Reposted by Amitava Kumar
Fantastic New Yorker essay by author and artist @amitava.bsky.social, Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair.
bit.ly/4iyUUq8
bit.ly/4iyUUq8
Travelling Through India on the Himsagar Express
This was not a luxury train, but even here, as in Indian society as a whole, the distinctions between the haves and the have-nots were clear.
bit.ly
March 10, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Fantastic New Yorker essay by author and artist @amitava.bsky.social, Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair.
bit.ly/4iyUUq8
bit.ly/4iyUUq8
February 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM
February 16, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Paperback Row in the New York Times Book Review
February 10, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Paperback Row in the New York Times Book Review
Tomorrow at the Brooklyn Public Library www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/ami...
February 5, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Tomorrow at the Brooklyn Public Library www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/ami...
During a visit to a school in Delhi I asked “what was your happiest day?”
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/what-was-y...
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/what-was-y...
What Was Your Happiest Day?
Report from a school visit in Delhi
amitavakumar.substack.com
January 26, 2025 at 1:15 PM
During a visit to a school in Delhi I asked “what was your happiest day?”
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/what-was-y...
amitavakumar.substack.com/p/what-was-y...
My novel's paperback launch in Brooklyn with Katie Kitamura on Feb 5!
January 25, 2025 at 5:26 PM
My novel's paperback launch in Brooklyn with Katie Kitamura on Feb 5!
