Join us for a discussion of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s memoir In Other Words (In altre parole). Both deeply personal and universally resonant, the book recounts Lahiri’s bold decision to immerse herself in Italian, set aside English in her writing, and embrace a new identity as an author in another language. Written originally in Italian and published in a dual-language format, In Other Words explores the challenges of learning to write in a new tongue, the vulnerability of beginning again, and the freedom Lahiri discovered in making Italian her literary home. Critics have praised it as “an honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words.” In Other Words is published in a bilingual version (Vintage Books) with Lahiri's Italian original text on the left page and Ann Goldstein's English translation on the right. Participants to the book club may read the Italian or the English version of this memoir. The event will be in English.
The discussion will be led by Pieranna Garavaso, professor emerita at the University of Minnesota Morris.
About Jhumpa Lahiri Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in the United States. She is the author of Interpreter of Maladies, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland. After moving to Rome in 2012, she has written and translated in Italian, publishing both fiction and nonfiction that explore language, identity, and exile. In 2022 she returned to her Alma Mater Barnard College in New York as the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English in 2022.
Pieranna Garavaso is native Italian and came to the US to earn a PhD in Philosophy (at the U of Nebraska Lincoln). She taught Philosophy at the University of Minnesota Morris for 34 years. She was awarded the UMN Morris Alumni Association Teaching Award (2003), the Horace T. Morse Alumni Association Undergraduate Teaching Award (2004) and the UMN Morris Faculty Research Award (2017). Her areas of research include History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Mathematics, and Feminist Philosophies. She has published articles in Italian and English and authored, co-authored or edited several books; the last collection she has edited is the Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Feminism (2018). As Emerita/retired she plans to devote more time to reading and discussing Italian literature.
In 2021, ICC was appointed Presidio Letterario of the Società Dante Alighieri (DA), one of the most important Italian institutions for the promotion and appreciation of Italian language and culture since 1889. ICC is now part of a network of cultural centers in Italy and abroad promoting events and initiatives related to Italian literature. Since 2009 DA has officially been part of the jury of Premio Strega, the most prestigious Italian literary award.
