Tahmima Anam

Tahmima Anam (Bengali: তাহমিমা আনাম; born 8 October 1975) is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, novelist and columnist. Her first novel, A Golden Age (2007), was the Best First Book winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prizes. Her follow-up novel, The Good Muslim, was nominated for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.^[2] She is the granddaughter of Abul Mansur Ahmed and daughter of Mahfuz Anam.

Early life[]

Anam was born on 8 October 1975 in Dhaka to Mahfuz Anam and Shaheen Anam. At the age of 2, she moved to Paris when both of her parents joined UNESCO as employees. She grew up in Paris, New York and Bangkok, learning the story of the Bangladesh Liberation War from her family since her father fought in the war.^[3][4][5][6]

Education[]

At the age of 17, she received a scholarship for Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated in 1997.^[5][7] She earned a PhD in anthropology from Harvard University in 2005 for her thesis "Fixing the Past: War, Violence, and Habitations of Memory in Post-Independence Bangladesh."^[8] Later, she completed her master of arts in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.^[7][3]

Career[]

In March 2007, Anam's first novel, A Golden Age, was published by John Murray. Inspired by her parents, who were freedom fighters during the war, she set the novel during the Bangladesh Liberation War.^[9] She had also researched the war during her post-graduation career. For the benefit of her research, she stayed in Bangladesh for two years and interviewed hundreds of war fighters. She also worked on the set of Tareque and Catherine Masud’s critically acclaimed film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird), which reflects the events during that war.^[10]

In 2011, The Good Muslim, a sequel to A Golden Age, was published and long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. In 2015, her short story "Garments", inspired by the Rana plaza building collapse, was published and won the O. Henry Award^[11][12] and was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.^[13] At the same year, she became a judge for The Man Booker International Prize 2016.^[14]

In 2016, her novel The Bones of Grace was published by HarperCollins.^[15] The following year, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[16][17] Anam's op-ed column has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian and in the New Statesman. In her column, Anam has written about Bangladesh and its growing problems.^[18][19][20]

In 2021, her novel The Startup Wife was published by Canongate Books. It was selected as a Best Book of 2021 by the Observer, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Red and the Daily Mail.^[21]

Personal life[]

Anam's first husband was a Bangladeshi marketing executive. In 2010, she married American inventor Roland O. Lamb, whom she met at Harvard University. The couple has a son named Rumi.^[15][22] Rumi was born premature and for five years refused to eat – an ordeal Anam has written about.^[23] She has resided in Kilburn, London, for the last decade.^[24]

Bibliography[]

Books[]

• A Golden Age. John Murray. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7195-6010-1.
• The Good Muslim. HarperCollins. 2011. ISBN 978-0-06-147876-5.
• The Bones of Grace. HarperCollins. 2016. ISBN 978-0061478949.
• The Startup Wife, Canongate Books. 2021. ISBN 978-1838852481.

Short stories[]

• "Saving the world". Granta. No. Autumn. London. 2008.
• "Anwar Gets Everything". Granta. No. Spring. London. 2013.
• "Garments". Freeman's. No. fall 2015. London. 2015.

See also[]

• British Bangladeshi
• List of British Bangladeshis
• List of Muslim writers and poets

References[]

External links[]

• Column for New York Times
• Column for The Guardian
• Column for New Statesman