Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh's family is Bengali Hindu, and his father was an officer in the pre-independence Indian Army. Growing up, Ghosh attended an all-boys school and then earned degrees in India and the UK at Delhi University, the Delhi School of Economics, St. Stephen's College, and Oxford. He worked briefly at a New Delhi newspaper called the Indian Express before beginning to write novels. His 1986 debut novel, The Circle of Reason, won a top literary award in France, and The Shadow Lines also won several awards in India. As of 2018, Ghosh has written eight novels and six nonfiction works, including several essay collections. His writing has also appeared in a number of publications in India and around the world. He lives with his wife, the author Deborah Baker, in New York, and the couple has two children. Ghosh has taught literature at several colleges and universities, including Queens College and Harvard. In 2015, he was named a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow, which is an award that recognizes artists and cultural leaders based in the US who demonstrate a commitment to social justice.