Kushanava Choudhury grew up in Calcutta and New Jersey. After graduating from Princeton University, he worked as a newspaper reporter at The Statesman in Calcutta. He went on to receive a PhD in political theory from Yale University before returning to Calcutta to write a book about the city. He has received a Mellon Early Career Fellowship, been a Senior Writing Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and held visiting faculty positions at universities in New Delhi and Istanbul. He has reported for the New York Times, Business Day, The Caravan and other publications in the US, India and South Africa. The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta is his first book. It is the product of a scholar's mind, a reporter's hustle and a writer's heart.