Hari Kunzru

fiction:

The Impressionist (2002) A chameleon-like young man takes a picaresque journey through the British Empire of the 1920’s. Published in the UK by Penguin, in the US by Penguin Putnam, with translations into twenty languages. Short listed for the Whitbread first novel prize, the Guardian fiction prize, the British Book Award, the Saroyan prize and the LA Times Award for First Fiction. It won the Betty Trask prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Pendleton May first novel award and the John Llewellyn Rhys prize (which he declined). It was named one of US Publishers Weekly’s best novels of 2002 and one of New York Public Library’s 2002 Books to Remember. Mira Nair, director of Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay, is developing a film adaptation.

Transmission (2004) A shy Indian programmer releases a computer virus, with devastating global results. It was named one of the New York Times’ notable books of the year. It has been translated into eighteen languages and was nominated for the 2006 International IMPAC award. A film adaptation is being developed.

Noise (2005) A mini-collection of short stories which appeared as part of Penguin’s seventieth birthday celebrations. My short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, The Guardian and various anthologies recently including The Book of Other People (ed. Zadie Smith).

My Revolutions (2007) A man revisits his past in the revolutionary underground of 70's London. In 2008 it was named a New York Times notable book of the year.

non fiction:

Journalism  His work has appeared in The Guardian, Observer, New York Times, Daily Telegraph,  London Review of Books, Time Out, Interview, Wallpaper*, The Times of India, Tehelka and many other publications. During 1995-97 he was Associate Editor at Wired. He sits on the editorial board of Mute, the London-based technology and culture magazine. Recent projects (2006-7) have included following Gordon Brown in the weeks before he became Prime Minister (New Statesman) and reporting from pro-democracy protests in the Maldives (Guardian). As a travel writer he has written about Japan, Cambodia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Benin, Honduras and other places. A photographic essay looking at Las Vegas’s response to the 9/11 attacks appeared in Zembla magazine in 2003. His photographs of the storage facility of the Wellcome Collection illustrated his contribution to The Phantom Museum: Henry Wellcome’s Medical Mysteries (Profile). Interviewees include Salman Rushdie, Michel Serres, Donna Haraway, Richard Prince, VS Naipaul and Daniel Dennett. He has a particular interest in technology, cultural change and civil liberties issues.

Essays  A recent selection: “Host Not Found” (a discussion of trends in internet censorship)  in the PEN anthology  Another Sky: Voices of Conscience From Around The World (Profile 2006), “Respecting Authority, Taking Offence” (an analysis of the chilling effect on free speech of UK religious offence legislation) in Free Expression is No Offence (Penguin 2005) and “The Values on the Ground” (Multiculturalism and the War on Terror) in Dis-Integrating Multiculturalism (Mute 2006). He has recently written new introductions to Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (Bloomsbury) and Samuel Selvon’s Moses Ascending (Penguin Modern Classics) as well as catalogue essays for the artists Paul Noble (Gagosian 2007) and Damian Ortega (Redcat 2006) and “Human Problems”, a fictional collaboration with the artist Francis Upritchard, with whom he also made two short films.

Honours and other activities:

2008-9 fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library

One of Granta Magazine’s Best Young British Novelists 2003

Deputy President of English PEN. A frequent speaker at PEN events. Has travelled to China and the Maldives representing PEN.

Decibel Writer of the Year at the British Book Awards 2005

Media work includes 2008 writing and presenting The First War on Terror, a BBC radio 4 documentary about the nineteenth-century anarchist panic, interviewing VS Naipaul in his first tv interview for 20 years (BBC4) and regular appearances on BBC2 Newsnight Review.  In 2003 he presented The Great Arc, a BBC4 television documentary about the Survey of India, and Islamic Art, a BBC4 documentary about the Khalili collection. During 1999-2000 he presented a TV magazine series on the electronic arts called The Lounge, which aired on Sky TV’s [.tv] channel.

In 2004 a radio play Sound Mirrors, a collaboration with musicians Coldcut, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

During 2000-2001 he co-wrote and developed The Block, an interactive drama for BBC Fiction Lab.

1999 Observer Young Travel Writer of the Year

A judge for the Guardian First Book Award, the National Design Award and the Index on Censorship Human Rights Awards. In 2004 he was a member of Channel 4’s shadow jury for the Turner Prize.

A patron of Resonance FM (the experimental music radio station) and the Refugee Council.

He has participated in literary events and festivals including the IFOA (Toronto), Kosmopolis (Barcelona), the Hay Festival (UK), Edinburgh Book Festival, Jaipur festival, Sydney Writers Festival, Time of the Writer (Durban), Hong Kong International Literary Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, LA Times Festival of Books, the Sino-British Literary Translation Workshop (Moganshan, China), the Arts in Marrakech Festival, Pordenone Legge (Italy), Etonnants Voyageurs (St. Malo, France), Warsaw International Book Fair, Helsinki Book Fair, Bok & Bibliotek (Gothenburg)