Hari Kunzru

Writer Born: London 1969 Nationality: British  lives: NYC 

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 I 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. 

Transmission (2004) A shy Indian programmer releases a computer virus, with devastating global results. Published in the UK by Penguin and the US by Penguin Putnam, 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 many anthologies recently including Ox-Tales (Oxfam) and The Book of Other People (ed. Zadie Smith).

My Revolutions (2007) Published in the UK by Penguin and in the US by Penguin Putnam. 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.Translations include Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Norway, Holland and Sweden.

Gods Without Men (2011) Published in the UK by Penguin (August 2011) and in the US by Knopf (2012). Multistranded stories from the eighteenth century to the present day set in the Mojave Desert. Prepublication translation sales include France, Norway and Spain.

non fiction:

Journalism  My work has appeared in The Guardian, New York Times, Daily Telegraph,  London Review of Books, Time Out, Interview, Wallpaper*, The Times of India and many other publications. During 1995-97 I was Associate Editor at Wired magazine. I am on the editorial board of Mute, the London-based technology and culture magazine. Projects 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 I have 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. My photographs of the storage facility of the Wellcome Collection illustrated my contribution to The Phantom Museum: Henry Wellcome’s Medical Mysteries (Profile). Interviewees include Salman Rushdie, JG Ballard, Michael Moorcock, Richard Prince, Michel Serres, Donna Haraway and Daniel Dennett. I have a particular interest in technology, cultural change and politics.

Essays  Recent subjects include Michael Haneke, Werner Herzog, Moondog, internet censorship, multiculturalism and Burning Man. I wrote new introductions to Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (Bloomsbury), John Le Carré’s A Small Town in Germany (Penguin Modern Classics) and Samuel Selvon’s Moses Ascending (Penguin Modern Classics) as well as catalogue essays and collaborations with artists including Paul Noble (Gagosian 2007) and Damian Ortega (Redcat 2006), Dr Lakra, Jamie Diamond and Francis Upritchard, with whom I also made two short films.

honours and other activities:

In 2010 I was the keynote speaker at the European Writers Parliament in Istanbul.

2010 Pushcart prize for 'Memories of the Decadence' 

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

I was named one of Granta Magazine’s Best Young British Novelists 2003

I am deputy president of English PEN. I am a frequent speaker at PEN events and have travelled to China and the Maldives representing PEN.

I was named the 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 I 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 I presented a TV magazine programme on the electronic arts called The Lounge, which aired on Sky TV’s [.tv] channel.

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

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

I was the 1999 Observer Young Travel Writer of the Year

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

 I am a patron of Resonance FM (the experimental music radio station) and theRefugee Council.

I have participated in literary events and festivals including the IFOA (Toronto), Jaipur Literary Festival (India), New Yorker Festival (USA), Port Eliot (UK), Kosmopolis (Spain), the Hay Festival (UK), Edinburgh Book Festival (UK), Sydney Writers Festival (Australia), Time of the Writer (Durban), Hong Kong International Literary Festival (China), Cheltenham Literature Festival (UK), Ubud (Indonesia), LA Times Festival of Books, the Sino-British Literary Translation Workshop (Moganshan, China), the Arts in Marrakech Festival (Morocco), Pordenone Legge (Italy), Etonnants Voyageurs (St. Malo, France), Warsaw International Book Fair, Collisioni (Italy) Helsinki Book Fair (Finland), Miami Book Fair (USA) and Bok & Bibliotek (Sweden)