Indian-American Pulitzer prize winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri has been selected for the prestigious National Humanities Medal by US President Barack Obama.
According to the awarding committee, she is being awarded the medal, “for enlarging the human story. In her works of fiction, Dr. Lahiri has illuminated the Indian-American experience in beautifully wrought narratives of estrangement and belonging.”
About National Humanities Medal
It is awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) which is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.
The National Humanities Medal is being awarded by the White House since 1996 to honour individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened the American citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.
Up to 12 medals can be awarded each year.
The White House also announced recipients of the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
About Jhumpa Lahiri
She is a short story writer and novelist based in the US. Her debut short story collection ‘Interpreter of Maladies‘ won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and her book ‘The Lowland’ was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize.
She is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.