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{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox writer 
| image = Rana Dasgupta small.jpg
| image_size = 200
| caption = Author Rana Dasgupta at home in Delhi, April 2010 (photo: Nina Subin)
| birth_name = Rana Dasgupta
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1971|11|05|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Canterbury]], England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Novelist, essayist
| nationality = British
| website = {{URL|http://www.ranadasgupta.com}}
}}

'''Rana Dasgupta''' (born 5 November 1971 in [[Canterbury]], England) is a [[British Indian]] novelist and essayist. He grew up in [[Cambridge]], England, and studied at [[Balliol College]], [[Oxford]], the Conservatoire [[Darius Milhaud]] in [[Aix-en-Provence]], and, as a [[Fulbright]] Scholar, the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]]. In 2010 ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' called him one of Britain's best novelists under 40.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bradbury|first=Lorna|title=Are these Britain's 20 best novelists under 40?|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7835258/Are-these-Britains-best-20-novelists-under-40.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=18 June 2010}}</ref> In 2014 ''[[Le Monde]]'' named him one of 70 people who are making the world of tomorrow.<ref>{{cite news|title=Le Monde de demain, parlons-en aujourd'hui|url=http://www.lemonde.fr/festival/article/2014/06/12/rana-dasgupta_4436939_4415198.html|newspaper=Le Monde|date=12 June 2014}}</ref> Among the prizes won by Dasgupta's works are the Commonwealth Prize and the [[Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage|Ryszard Kapuściński Award]].

Dasgupta is a former Literary Director of the [[JCB Prize for Literature]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ghoshal|first=Somak|date=2020-02-14|title='I want to take the JCB Prize to the smaller towns and cities': Mita Kapur|url=https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/-i-want-to-take-the-jcb-prize-to-the-smaller-towns-and-cities-mita-kapur-11581658131897.html|access-date=2020-11-30|website=mint|language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
Dasgupta's first novel, ''[[Tokyo cancelled|Tokyo Cancelled]]'' ([[HarperCollins]], 2005), was an examination of the forces and experiences of [[globalisation]]. Billed as a modern-day ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'', it is about thirteen passengers stuck overnight in an airport who tell thirteen stories from different cities in the world, stories that resemble contemporary fairytales, mythic and surreal. The tales add up to a broad exploration of 21st-century forms of life, which includes billionaires, film stars, migrant labourers, illegal immigrants and sailors.<ref>''Tokyo Cancelled'', Rana Dasgupta. London: Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, 2005. New York: Black Cat/Grove Atlantic, 2005, {{ISBN|0-8021-7009-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Crown|first=Sarah|title=Narrative Planes|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/mar/29/fiction.sarahcrown|newspaper=The Guardian|date=29 March 2005}}</ref> ''Tokyo Cancelled'' was shortlisted for the 2005 [[John Llewellyn Rhys Prize]].

Dasgupta's second novel, ''Solo'' (HarperCollins, 2009), was an epic tale of the 20th and 21st centuries told from the perspective of a 100-year-old [[Bulgaria]]n man. Having achieved little in his 20th-century life, he settles into a long and prophetic daydream of the 21st century, where all the ideological experiments of the old century are over, and a collection of startling characters – demons and angels – live a life beyond utopia. A reviewer described it as "unfazed by the 21st century, confidently tracing the wrong turnings of the past 100 years, soaring insightfully over the mess of global developments that constitute the quagmire of today".<ref>{{cite news|last=Krauth|first=Nigel|title=Addictive puzzle of life's meaning|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/solo/story-e6frg8no-1111118678857|newspaper=The Australian|date=31 January 2009}}</ref> ''Solo'' was translated into twenty languages.

Dasgupta was awarded the prestigious [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]] for the novel ''Solo''; it won both the region and overall best-book prize.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rana Dasgupta's 'risky' book takes writers' prize|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8616360.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=12 April 2010}}</ref>

His third book, ''Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First-Century Delhi'' ([[Canongate]], 2014), is a non-fiction exploration of his adopted city of Delhi, and, in particular, the changes and personalities brought about there by globalization. ''Capital'' won the [[Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage]] and was shortlisted for the [[Orwell Prize]] and the [[Ondaatje Prize]].

Dasgupta is currently working on a book about a proposed crisis of the nation-state system. In March 2017 he co-curated a major conference and exhibition at the [[Haus der Kulturen der Welt]] in [[Berlin]] with the title "Now is the time of monsters: what comes after nations?"<ref>{{cite news|title=Now Is The Time of Monsters|url=http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2017/die_jetztzeit_der_monster/die_jetztzeit_der_monster_start.php|date=March 2017}}</ref>

He served as the founding Literary Director of the [[JCB Prize for Literature]] founded in 2018 by [[JCB (company)|JCB]] which will be awarded annually with 25 lakh Indian rupees (US$38,400) to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer.
Dasgupta was awarded the prestigious Rabindranath Tagore Literary Award 2019 for his novel Solo.

==Academic appointments==

In October 2012, Dasgupta was Whitney J. Oates Visiting Fellow in the Humanities at [[Princeton University]].

Since 2014, he has taught each spring at [[Brown University]] where he is Distinguished Visiting Lecturer and Writer-in-Residence in the Department of Modern Culture and Media.

==Awards==
* 2010 - [[Commonwealth Foundation prizes|Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book]] for his novel ''Solo''<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lea|first=Richard|date=2010-04-12|title=Rana Dasgupta wins Commonwealth Writers' prize|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/12/rana-dasgupta-commonwealth-writers-prize|access-date=2020-11-30|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
* 2017 [[Émile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature]] for ''Capital''
* 2017 [[Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage]] for ''Capital''
* 2019 - [[Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize]] for ''Solo'' <ref>{{Cite news|last=IANS|date=2019-04-24|title=Rana Dasgupta bags 2019 Tagore Literary Prize|work=Business Standard India|url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/rana-dasgupta-bags-2019-tagore-literary-prize-119042401001_1.html|access-date=2020-11-30}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==

===Fiction===
*''[[Tokyo Cancelled]]'' (2005)
*''[[Solo (2009 novel)|Solo]]'' (2009)

===Non-fiction===
*''[[Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi]]'' (2014).<ref>Prix Émile Guimet de littérature asiatique 2017 : [http://www.guimet.fr/fr/programmation-artistique/cycle-de-lectures/prix-emile-guimet-de-litterature-asiatique-2017 Site officiel] (28 June 2017)</ref>

===Essays===
*"Maximum Cities" (''[[New Statesman]]'', 27 March 2006)
*"Capital Gains" (''[[Granta]]'' 107, Summer 2009)
*"Writing into the unknown" (''Nagledna+'', 2013)<ref>{{cite news|title=Writing into the unknown|url=http://www.plus.nagledna.net/Writing-into-the-unknown|publisher=Nagledna+|date=Summer 2013}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
*"Notes on a Suicide" (''Granta'' 140, Summer 2017)<ref>{{cite news|title=Notes on a Suicide|url=https://granta.com/notes-on-a-suicide}}</ref>
*"The Demise of the Nation State" (''The Guardian'', ''The long read'', 5 April 2018)<ref>{{cite news|last=Dasgupta|first=Rana|date=5 April 2018|title=The Demise of the Nation State|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/05/demise-of-the-nation-state-rana-dasgupta}}</ref>
*"The Silenced Majority: Can America Still Afford Democracy?" (''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' 341, no. 2,047 December 2020, pages 47–56)

=== Further reading ===

* Mendes, AC, Lau, L. (2018) “[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1474474018786033 The conjunctural spaces of ‘new India’: Imagined geographies of 2010s India in representations by returnee migrants]”, ''cultural geographies'', 1–16. DOI: 10.1177/1474474018786033.
* Mendes, AC. (2018) “[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/eruption-and-ruination-of-rising-india-rana-dasguptas-capital-and-the-temporalities-of-delhi-in-the-2010s/80B24BCC803E6CE6C5C137A1F968C722 The eruption and ruination of ‘rising India’: Rana Dasgupta’s ''Capital'' and the temporalities of Delhi in the 2010s”], ''Modern Asian Studies'', 1–25. DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X17000464.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.newstatesman.com/node/152859 ''New Statesman'' article by Rana Dasgupta on the rise of the Third-World city]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091004170148/http://www.granta.com/Magazine/107/Capital-Gains/1 ''Granta'' essay by Rana Dasgupta about Delhi's new rich]
* [http://www.brown.edu/academics/literary-arts/rana-dasgupta "Rana Dasgupta"], Writers Online, Brown University.

{{Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Best Book Winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasgupta, Rana}}
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Canterbury]]
[[Category:People from Cambridge]]
[[Category:21st-century British novelists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British male novelists]]
[[Category:British people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:People educated at The Perse School]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni]]
[[Category:21st-century British male writers]]

Rana Dasgupta - Revision history

imported>PavKls at 18:07, 27 August 2021