UR Spring Writers Series brings acclaimed author Mohsin Hamid to campus to discuss refugees and other global topics

University of Richmond will host celebrated author Mohsin Hamid for its annual Writers Series March 28. Hamid will offer readings from his novels, which touch on issues of globalism.  

Named The New York Times’ Best Book of 2017, Hamid’s most recent novel, “Exit West,” mixes the real and surreal as it follows the lives of a young couple fleeing their unnamed city after the onset of war. NPR described the book as “the best writing of Hamid’s career,” and The Atlantic called it a “remarkable accomplishment…not putting a human face on refugees so much as putting a refugee face on all of humankind.”

“‘Exit West’ recasts what we typically see as ‘the refugee problem’ as a permanent feature of the contemporary world and reminds us that global migrations have always taken place in human history,” English professor Monika Siebert said. “Hamid provides a much needed perspective in the current public conversation about refugees, which has been drastically stilted by lack of historical perspective and lack of generous spirit towards the whole of humanity.”

Hamid’s 2007 novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and made into a film by Mira Nair in 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Hamid began his career as a management consultant before his first novel, “Moth Smoke,” was named a finalist for the 2000 PEN/Hemingway Award.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Weinstein Hall, Brown Alley Room at 7 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Hamid and participate in a Q & A and book signing following the event.

The Writers Series is sponsored by the Department of English and the School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office.

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