Event Recap: In Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri

The dialogue opened with Lahiri reflecting on her early encounters with storytelling, shaped by her Bengali heritage and her upbringing in suburban Rhode Island. She spoke about the expectations placed on individuals to master the language they were raised in, often at the expense of embracing other languages as valid forms of self-expression.

Lahiri recounted how, during her time at Barnard College, she felt inspired to explore writing in languages beyond English, in part because she saw other writers daring to do the same. This exposure planted the seeds for what would later become a radical act of literary reinvention. She emphasized that she does not identify with the notion of having a singular “mother tongue,” and described her decision to learn and write in Italian as a liberating break from familial and cultural expectations. Italian, she said, became “a liberation from my childhood”—a language untouched by the emotional and historical weight of her past, through which she could think and express herself anew. Writing in this new language, Lahiri shared, felt freeing.

A journey through words and worlds affirmed Jhumpa Lahiri’s role as a singular voice in contemporary literature, unafraid to cross boundaries—linguistic, cultural, and existential. Her reflections reminded us that to embrace a new language is not to abandon identity, but to expand it. 

The event concluded with an engaging Q&A session, inviting reflections from the audience that deepened the evening’s exploration of language, identity, and transformation. We are grateful to everyone who joined us for this enlightening conversation.