English-born American novelist and short-story writer whose works illuminate the immigrant experience.

Lahiri was raised in South Kingstown, R.I., U.S. After graduating from Barnard College in 1989, she obtained three master's degrees and a doctorate from Boston University and wrote fiction that won several prizes in the 1990s.

In 2000 Lahiri surprised the literary world by winning a Pulitzer Prize for her debut collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999). The nine stories provide insight into the experiences of Indian immigrants. The novel The Namesake (2003; film 2006) examines the themes of personal identity and immigration, but its focus is the internal dynamics of a Bengali family in the United States. Unaccustomed Earth (2008), a collection of short stories, likewise takes as its subject the experience of immigration as well as of assimilation into American culture.