Discipline: Literature

Sanjay Nigam

Discipline: Literature
Region: New York, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1993
Sanjay Nigam was born in India, but left as an infant when his father came to North America for postdoctoral studies. Although he spent most of his young life in Arizona, he regularly returned to India to visit his grandparents in Delhi, where The Snake Charmer, his first novel, is set. Nigam's colorful depictions of Old Delhi are derived from those childhood memories. While pursuing his medical training, Nigam found respite from his grueling medical residency in the world of literature. Eventually, his passion for reading led to his own fiction, which he began to work on while doing scientific research in New York City. There he became involved in writing workshops, and published his first short story — an excerpt from The Snake Charmer — in Grand Street, the prestigious literary magazine. He has published other works in The Kenyon Review, Story, and Natural History.

Studios

Irving Fine

Sanjay Nigam worked in the Irving Fine studio.

Youngstown Studio was given to MacDowell by friends of Miss Myra McKeown in Youngstown, OH, where she promoted both art and music. It was renamed Irving Fine Studio in 1972 in honor of Irving Fine, a distinguished composer, conductor, and teacher who was a MacDowell Fellow during the 1940s and 1950s. The simple interior of the studio…

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