Author Jhumpa Lahiri, JCU 2013 Writer in Residence, to Receive National Humanities Medal

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri

Pultizer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, 2013 Writer in Residence at JCU’s Summer Institute in Creative Writing, has been named one of the two recipients of the 2014 National Humanities Medal, according to The DailyPrincetonian. The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, September 10, and will be conferred by President Barack Obama.

Ms Lahiri’s novel The Namesake was the focus of JCU’s Italy Reads 2013 program, during which she gave the Keynote Address and the Master Class for high school teachers of English. Her contribution to this program had an important influence on Italian students of English and reinforced the cultural awareness that JCU promotes through this program.

As Writer in Residence at JCU, Ms Lahiri presented the Italy Writes awards to the winners of this creative writing competition for high school students writing in a second language. Ms Lahiri expressed her personal appreciation of the efforts these students made to find their creative voices in a new language, a project on which she herself had recently embarked.

John Cabot University and the Institute for Creative Writing and Literary Translation congratulate Ms Lahiri on her receipt of this distinguished honor.