Samanth Subramanian

Indian writer and journalist

Samanth Subramanian is an Indian writer and journalist based in London.^[1]^[2] He studied journalism at Penn State University and international relations at Columbia University. In 2018–19, he was a Leon Levy Fellow at the City University of New York. He is also a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian and WIRED.

Author

Subramanian's first book Following Fish: Travels Around the Indian Coast (2010, Penguin Books India) was a travelogue about Indian fisheries and seafood cuisine.

His second book This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan Civil War (2015, Atlantic Books, ISBN 978-0857895950) was nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize.^[3] He became only the second Indian writer after Suketu Mehta to be nominated for this prestigious award for literary non-fiction.^[1]^[4] William Dalrymple, writing in The Guardian, considered it a remarkable and moving portrayal of the agonies of the conflict that "will stand as a fine literary monument against the government’s attempt at imposed forgetfulness".^[2]

His third major work, A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane (2019) is a biography of J. B. S. Haldane.^[5] The book has been selected as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2020 by The New York Times.^[6]

His articles cover a wide variety of subjects ranging from land reclamation in Singapore^[7] to Tamil pulp fiction.^[8]

He has written about the synthesis of new chemical elements for Bloomberg Businessweek.^[9]

In April 2024, in the run-up to India's general elections, Subramanian wrote a profile of Rahul Gandhi in The New York Times Magazine covering Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, and other topics.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b "Samanth Subramanian Becomes The Second Indian To Be Longlisted For The Samuel Johnson Prize". HuffPost. September 22, 2015. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
^ ^a ^b Dalrymple, William (March 9, 2015). "This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War review – a moving portrayal of the agonies of the conflict". The Guardian. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
^ "Samanth Subramanian | Authors | Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
^ "Sri Lanka: A 'divided island' forever? – DW speaks to Samanth Subramanian | DW | 13.02.2020". DW.COM. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
^ "Samanth Subramanian: 'You Don't Need To Be Apolitical To Be Scientifically Objective'". HuffPost India. 2020-02-02. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
^ "100 Notable Books of 2020". The New York Times. 12 December 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
^ "How Singapore Is Creating More Land for Itself". The New York Times. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
^ "Meet Rajesh Kumar, Author of 1500 Novels". Live Mint. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
^ Samanth Subramanian (28 August 2019). "Making New Elements Doesn't Pay. Just Ask This Berkeley Scientist". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
^ Samanth Subramanian (20 April 2024). "Time Is Running Out for Rahul Gandhi's Vision for India". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2024.