Speaking of Babel: The Risks and Rewards of Writing about Polyglot Societies

The Whitney Humanities Center is pleased to announce that acclaimed Indian writer Amitav Ghosh will deliver the Finzi-Contini lecture on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. His talk, “Speaking of Babel: The Risks and Rewards of Writing about Polyglot Societies,” will take place at 5 pm in the WHC Auditorium at 53 Wall Street. Ghosh will also read from his works on Wednesday, April 19, at 10:15 am in the Auditorium. Both events are free and open to the public. 

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta, grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and studied in Delhi, Oxford, and Alexandria. He is the author of numerous award-winning works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels The Glass Palace, The Hungry Tide, Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire, and the essay collections In an Antique Land, Dancing in Cambodia, The Imam and the Indian, and, most recently, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Ghosh’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the New York Times and been translated into more than thirty-five languages. He has taught at Delhi University, Columbia, Queens College, and Harvard. Ghosh is the recipient of the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest honors, bestowed by the President of India; honorary doctorates from Queens College and the Sorbonne; the Dan David Prize, in recognition of outstanding scientific, technological, cultural, or social impact on our world; and the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix for lifetime achievement. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow.

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