Mohsin Hamid delivers the 5th Annual Cheuse Lecture of Ideas
Thursday, April 8, 2027 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM EDT
Stacy C Sherwood Comm Center, Fairfax VA
Mohsin Hamid will deliver the Fifth Annual Cheuse Lecture of Ideas.
Mohsin Hamid will deliver the Fifth Cheuse Lecture of Ideas. Few writers today fulfill the role of citizen of the world as much as Mohsin Hamid. A native of Lahore, Pakistan, Hamid spent much of his childhood and early adulthood in New York, attended Princeton and Harvard for his education, and has lived in California, London, and now again, in his native Pakistan.
Hamid has developed a wide view of the world and how we fight against one another, disrupting basic assumptions about how we navigate life in an unstable international order. In his five novels—Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Exit West, and The Last White Man—he dramatized catalyzing events that disrupt the lives of his characters, often ending one way of living, and requiring them to build new ones if they are to survive. The novels, along with his journalism and essays, have earned him praise for the power and accuracy of his observations of the present-day world, and its destabilizing fractures and fissures. He shines a light on ideological rigidness that itself gives way to indifference.
His first novel, Moth Smoke, won a Betty Trask Award, was a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist, and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The Reluctant Fundamentalist was a bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; it was also adapted into a film by the same name. Exit West was a Booker Prize finalist and bestseller. The Last White Man was long-listed for the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize and is often noted for the ways it is similar to Kafka’s Metamorphosis, in the way it raises questions about identity.
About the Cheuse Lecture Series:
Founded in 2023, the Cheuse Lecture of Ideas series brings leading international writers into conversation with audiences across Northern Virginia and greater Washington, D.C. region. The series highlights literature’s role in shaping civic and cultural dialogue, drawing attendees from more than 22 cities each year. Named in honor of author and longtime NPR book critic and George Mason Professor, Alan Cheuse, the Center continues his vision of literary engagement across borders, promoting curiosity, empathy, and dialogue through the written word. The center previously featured Azar Nafisi, Nikki Giovanni, Dinaw Mengestu, and Colm Toibin.
Lecture sponsors include William Miller & Elizabeth Vermilye, the Goethe-Institut Washington, Solasnua, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Mason Exhibitions and the Embassy of Ireland; in partnership with the City of Fairfax, ArtsFairfax, and the Fairfax County Public Library. Books will be available for purchase on site.
