Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India
• Education—B.S., Allahabad University; M.A., Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in London, England, UK
Pankaj Mishra is an Indian novelist and nonfiction writer. He is the author of some 10 books, most well-know of which are Age of Anger: A History of the Present (2017) and From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia (2012).
Background
Mishra graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce from Allahabad University before earning his Master of Arts degree in English literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
In 1992, he moved to Mashobra, a Himalayan village, where he began to contribute literary essays and reviews to The Indian Review of Books, India Magazine, and the newspaper The Pioneer.
Books
His first book, Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (1995), is a travelogue describing the social and cultural changes in India in the context of globalization. His novel The Romantics (2000), an ironic tale of people longing for fulfilment in cultures other than their own, was published in 11 European languages and won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum award for first fiction.
His book, An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World (2004), mixes memoir, history, and philosophy while attempting to explore the Buddha's relevance to contemporary times. Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond (2006), describes the author's travels through Kashmir, Bollywood, Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, and other parts of South and Central Asia.
From the Ruins of Empire (2012) examines the question of "how to find a place of dignity for oneself in this world created by the West, in which the West and its allies in the non-West had reserved the best positions for themselves." Age of Anger (2016) traces the history of the current era's political and social divisiveness.
Other writing
In addition to his books, Mishra has written literary and political essays for the New York Times, New York Review of Books, Guardian, London Review of Books, and New Yorker, among other American, British, and Indian publications. He is a columnist for Bloomberg View and the New York Times Book Review.
His work has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Boston Globe, Common Knowledge, Financial Times, Granta, Independent, New Republic, New Statesman, Wall Street Journal, n+1, Nation, Outlook, Poetry, Time, Times Literary Supplement, Travel + Leisure, and Washington Post.
From 2007-2008, Mishra was the Visiting Fellow in the Department of English at University College, London. Today, he divides his time between London and India.
Recognition and awards
Mishara was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008. In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top 100 global thinkers. In 2015, Prospect nominated him to its list of 50 World Thinkers.
2000 - Art Seidenbaum Award for Best First Fiction: Romantics
2013 - Crossword Book Award: From the Ruins of Empire.
2014 - Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding: From the Ruins of Empire
2014 - Windham–Campbell Literature Prize-Nonfiction: From the Ruins of Empire
2014 - Premi Internacional D'assaig Josep Palau i Fabre)
(Author bio adaptd from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/27/2017)
Age of Anger (Mishra) - Author Bio
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