TICKETS: $30 general admission tickets, which include a signed hardcover copy of Jhumpa Lahiri’s new collection Roman Stories, available for pickup at the theatre the night of the event.
Jhumpa Lahiri will read from her new collection Roman Stories, followed by an on-stage conversation with Italian novelist Andrea Bajani. All ticket buyers will receive signed books, additional books will also be available for sale in the lobby. The event is presented as part of the 2023/2024 Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. ASL interpretation will be available at this event.
JHUMPA LAHIRI is “a genius of the miniature stroke and the great arc” (The Chicago Tribune). Her debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize and her second novel The Lowland was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award. She is also the recipient of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and the National Humanities Medal for “illuminating the Indian American experience in beautifully wrought narratives of estrangement and belonging” (White House Citation). Her other works in English include The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, Whereabouts, In Other Words, The Clothing of Books, and Translating Myself and Others.
Lahiri comes to Houston to read from and talk about her new short story collection Roman Stories, which she wrote in Italian and features the city of Rome as the protagonist. The collection explores the tensions of a changing city, the challenge of straddling cultures, and the meaning of home. According to Lahiri’s publisher Picador, “These intimate and poignant stories are rich with her signature gifts: lyrical prose, emotional wisdom, visceral imagery and overwhelming universality.” Lahiri is the director of creative writing at Barnard College and splits her time between New York and Rome.
Andrea Bajani is one of the most acclaimed and award-winning novelists of contemporary Italian and European literature. He is the author of nine books, including If You Kept a Record of Sins, Every Promise, and The Book of Homes. He is the editor of The Stories We Tell, a collection of essays about writing, which includes texts by Margaret Atwood, Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith, and Michael Ondaatje. Bajani teaches at Rice University in the Department of English and the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures.
