On April 19, Barnard announced that the celebrated author and alumna will be joining the faculty as Director of Creative Writing.

Earlier today, Barnard College announced that Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri will be joining the faculty as the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing. Lahiri, currently the director of the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University, plans to join Barnard in July 2022.

Lahiri graduated from Barnard in 1989, earning a BA in English with a focus on Medieval and Renaissance Literature. She later received an MA in English, an MA in Comparative Studies in Literature and the Arts, an MA in Creative Writing, and a PhD in Renaissance Studies, all from Boston University. In 2000, Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and The New Yorker Debut of the Year Award for her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies. Her 2003 novel The Namesake was adapted into a film of the same name. Following her 2011 move to Rome, Lahiri has also written novels, short stories, and essays in Italian, including The Clothing of Books (2016), Dove mi trovo (2018), and Il quaderno di Nerina (2021). Her latest book, Translating Myself and Others, will be published in May 2022. 

Lahiri’s new role at Barnard reflects her varied experience with translation as well as writing in English and Italian. In addition to leading the Creative Writing Program, she will hold affiliate status in the Comparative Literature and Translation Studies Program and in the Department of Italian. She will also be appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University.

On Barnard’s Creative Writing faculty, Lahiri will teach courses in writing, translation, Italian, and comparative literature. Regarding the news of Lahiri’s joining the faculty, Peter G. Platt, Ann Whitney Olin Professor and Chair of English said, “We are thrilled that Jhumpa Lahiri is returning to Barnard as a member of the English Department faculty… She will enrich the College by teaching courses in English, European, and global literature; creative writing; and the art of translation. Her contributions to current and prospective students, as well as to Barnard as a whole, will be immeasurable.”

Jhumpa Lahiri via Elena Seibert and Barnard College News