Sloan Award (2019)
The Sloan Foundation has given me an award under their book program to work on “The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using only Math.”
Hrabowski Award (2018)
I was awarded a Hrabowski Innovation Grant Fund Award in Spring, 2018 for a project entitled Math, Fiction and Video: A STEAM Project.
Appointed as a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times (2015)
Distinguished University Professor (as of September, 2014)
Presidential Teaching Professor, 2013–2016
Read citation.
Elkins Professorship
I was awarded an Elkins Professorship for the academic year 2007-2008. My award has been used to foster interest and learning in mathematics among K-12 students and the general public.
Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient, 2004 (Fiction)
Named a “Person to Watch” by Time Magazine in 2000
Awards and Honors for Novels
The Death of Vishnu was the winner of the 2002 Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the 2001 Ralph Heyne Corrine Buchpreis (Germany), the 2002 McKittrick Prize (U.K.), and a Pen-Bingham Fellowship for 2002-04. It was also a finalist for the Pen-Faulkner award, Kiriyama prize, Pen-Hemingway award, L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum award, Torgi Literary award (Canada) and W.H. Smith First Novel award (UK). It was long-listed for the Booker Prize (2001) and the IMPAC Prize (2003) and was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001.
The Age of Shiva was listed as one of the best 25 books of the decade by Contemporary Literature.
The City of Devi was listed as #12 in Flavorwire’s “50 Essential Works on LGBT Fiction,” won the 2014 Bisexual Book Prize and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Fiction Award.