Sunetra Gupta, critically acclaimed author of Moonlight into Marzipan and The Glassblower’s Breath, will contrast the languages of science and literature, taking us from the word to the sentence through to how narratives are constructed in each, drawing from her experiences as an evolutionary biologist and novelist.
You can read our blog post about the event, and listen to an interview (mp3) with Sunetra.
Sunetra Gupta is an acclaimed novelist, essayist and scientist. Her fifth novel, So Good in Black, was published in 2009 - the same year in which she won the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific achievements.
Sunetra graduated from Princeton University in 1987 and received her PhD from the University of London in 1992. She is Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and her main area of interest is the evolution of diversity in pathogens, with particular reference to the infectious disease agents that are responsible for malaria, influenza and bacterial meningitis.
Sunetra was born in Calcutta and wrote her first works of fiction in Bengali. She is an accomplished translator of the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore. Sunetra's childhood and her family's peripatetic lifestyle have had a great impact on her work. Her early years were spent moving between Ethiopia, Zambia and England. When she was 11 the family returned to Calcutta, a city which continues to inspire her writing.
She is currently writing a book contrasting the uses of narrative in science and literature, sponsored by Arts Council England.