Thrity Umrigar

{{short description|Indian and Parsi author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2019}} {{Use Indian English|date=March 2019}} {{Infobox writer  | image = Thrity Umrigar 2022 Texas Book Festival.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Umrigar at the 2022 Texas Book Festival. | birth_name = Thrity Umrigar | birth_date = 1961 <ref name="cpl_bio">[https://cpl.org/ohio-author/thrity-umrigar/ Thrity Umrigar], Cleveland Public Library. Retrieved 12 April 2026.</ref> | birth_place = Mumbai, India | alma_mater = B.S. Bombay University, M.A. Ohio State University, Ph.D. Kent State University | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Journalist * novelist * critic * teacher }} | nationality = American | genre = | signature = | website = {{URL|umrigar.com}} }} '''Thrity Umrigar''' is an Indian-American journalist, critic, and novelist.

==Early life== Umrigar was born in Mumbai, India to a Parsi family,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bookslut.com/features/2012_01_018505.php|title=Bookslut - An Interview with Thrity Umrigar|website=www.bookslut.com|accessdate=19 December 2018|archive-date=9 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209121519/http://www.bookslut.com/features/2012_01_018505.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> and relocated to the United States at the age of 21. There she completed her graduate education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/bio/|title=Bio|website=Thrity Umrigar official website|access-date=14 September 2017}}</ref>

Umrigar received a Bachelor of Science from Bombay University, a M.A. in journalism from Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in English from Kent State University.<ref name="cpl_bio"/><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://bookpage.com/interviews/8766-thrity-umrigar#.WYkssdPytUQ|title=Thrity Umrigar|website=Bookpage|date=15 December 2011 |access-date=2017-08-07}}</ref>

== Career == Umrigar started her career in journalism as a reporter for the ''Lorain Journal'' in 1985, moving to the ''Akron Beacon Journal'' in 1987, where she worked while simultaneously working on her doctorate at Kent State.<ref>[https://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm/author_number/1420/thrity-umrigar "An interview with Thrity Umrigar]". Bookbrowse. Retrieved 12 April 2026.</ref> After a stint as a Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard University, where she worked on completing her first novel, ''Bombay Time'', she left the ''Beacon Journal'' in 2002 for a visiting professorship at Case Western Reserve University.<ref>[https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/life-in-motion/ "Life in Motion,"], ''Cleveland Magazine'', December 20, 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2026.</ref>

She has written for ''The Washington Post'', the ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'', and ''The Huffington Post''. She regularly writes for ''The Boston Globe''{{'}}s book pages. She is the Armitage Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She is also active on the national lecture circuit.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thebetsywritersroom.com/programs/writers-on-the-bay-series/2015-2/|title=Writers-on-the-bay-series|website=BetsyWritersRoom|date=14 September 2015 |access-date=2017-08-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.khabar.com/magazine/features/journalists_who_moonlight_as_fiction_writers.aspx|title=Journalists who moonlight as fiction writers|website=Khabar|access-date=2017-08-07}}</ref>

== Works == * ''Bombay Time'' (2001)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/bombay-time/|title=Bombay Time|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood'' (2004)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/first-darling/|title=First Darling of the Morning|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''The Space Between Us'' (2006)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-space-between-us/|title=The Space Between Us|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''If Today Be Sweet'' (2007)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/if-today-be-sweet/|title=If Today Be Sweet|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''The Weight of Heaven'' (2009)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-weight-of-heaven/|title=The Weight of Heaven|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''The World We Found'' (2012)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-world-we-found/|title=The World We Found|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''The Story Hour'' (2014)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-story-hour/|title=The Story Hour|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''Everybody's Son'' (2017)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-secrets-between-us/|title=Everybody's Son|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-13}}</ref> * ''When I Carried You in My Belly'' (2017)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/when-i-carried-you-in-my-belly/|title=When I Carried You In My Belly|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-29}}</ref> * ''The Secrets Between Us'' (2018)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umrigar.com/the-secrets-between-us/|title=The Secrets Between Us|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2018-05-13}}</ref> * ''Binny's Diwali'' (2020)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://umrigar.com/when-i-carried-you-in-my-belly-copy/|title=Binny's Diwali|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2023-11-21}}</ref> * ''Sugar in Milk'' (2020)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://umrigar.com/when-i-carried-you-in-my-belly-1/|title=Sugar In Milk|website=Thrity Umrigar|access-date=2023-11-21}}</ref> * ''Honor'' (2022)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.workman.com/products/honor/hardback|title=Honor|website=Workman Publishing|access-date=2022-01-06}}</ref> * ''The Museum of Failures'' (2023)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Umrigar |first=Thrity |title=The Museum of Failures |publisher=Algonquin Books |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |year=2023 |isbn=9781643753553 |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/thrity-umrigar/the-museum-of-failures/9781643753553/ |access-date=2026-03-15}}</ref>

== Recognition == * 2000 - Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard University<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/NiemanFellowships/MeetTheFellows/AlumniFellows.aspx#2000 |title=Nieman Foundation | Nieman Fellowships | Meet the Fellows | Alumni Fellows |access-date=18 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318212601/http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/NiemanFoundation/NiemanFellowships/MeetTheFellows/AlumniFellows.aspx#2000 |archive-date=18 March 2014 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref name="auto1"/> * 2006 - Finalist for the PEN Open Book Award<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.case.edu/faculty/thrity-umrigar/|title=Department of English|publisher=|accessdate=19 December 2018}}</ref> * 2009 - Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature<ref>{{cite web |url=http://clevelandartsprize.org/archive_year.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2014-03-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320171835/http://clevelandartsprize.org/archive_year.html |archivedate=2014-03-20 }}</ref> * 2013 - Lambda Literary Award in the Lesbian General Fiction category for her novel, ''The World We Found''<ref>[http://lgbtweekly.com/2013/06/04/25th-annual-lambda-literary-award-winners-announced/ "25th annual Lambda Literary Award winners announced"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130610062409/http://lgbtweekly.com/2013/06/04/25th-annual-lambda-literary-award-winners-announced/ |date=10 June 2013 }}, ''LGBT Weekly'', 4 June 2013.</ref>

==See also== * List of Indian writers

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} * [http://www.umrigar.com/ Personal website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umrigar, Thrity}} Category:American women writers of Indian descent Category:Living people Category:Indian emigrants to the United States Category:Nieman Fellows Category:Ohio State University alumni Category:Kent State University alumni Category:Writers from Mumbai Category:American people of Parsi descent Category:University of Mumbai alumni Category:Case Western Reserve University faculty Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Writers from Cleveland Category:Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction winners Category:Parsi people Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:American women academics