Tahmima Anam

{{Infobox writer

| name = Tahmima Anam

| image = tahmima anam 2023.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Anam in 2023

| native_name = তাহমিমা আনাম

| native_name_lang = bn

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1975|10|8|df=y}}[https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/1518/tahmima-anam Tahmima Anam author biography] BookBrowse

| birth_place = Dhaka, Bangladesh

| death_date =

| death_place =

| resting_place =

| occupation = Writer, novelist, columnist

| language = English

| citizenship = British

| alma_mater = Mount Holyoke College (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Royal Holloway, University of London (MA)

| notableworks = A Golden Age
The Good Muslim
The Bones of Grace

| years_active = 2007–present

| spouse = {{marriage| Roland O. Lamb|2010}}

| relatives = Mahfuz Anam (father)
Abul Mansur Ahmed
(paternal grandfather)

}}

Tahmima Anam ({{langx|bn|তাহমিমা আনাম}}; born 8 October 1975) is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, novelist and columnist.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-15 |title=Tahmima Anam: 'A lot of my feminist rage was born when I read The Bell Jar' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/15/tahmima-anam-a-lot-of-my-feminist-rage-was-born-when-i-read-the-bell-jar |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=the Guardian |language=en}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://bbpower100.com/women/ |title=Women – Welcome to British Bangladeshi Power 100 |website=British Bangladeshi Power 100 |date=January 2012 |access-date=1 May 2012}} 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 her parents joined UNESCO as employees. She grew up in Paris, New York, and Bangkok, where she learned the story of the Bangladesh Liberation War from her parents.{{cite news |title=Tahmima Anam lifts the veil on Bangladesh's ugly truths |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/tahmima-anam-lifts-the-veil-on-bangladeshs-ugly-truths-978wfqd7xms |newspaper=The Times}}{{cite news |last=Bergquist |first=Karin |url=http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?1271 |title=Mahfuz Anam |website=Culturebase |year=2007 |access-date=31 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203100431/http://culturebase.net/artist.php?1271 |archivedate=3 February 2007 |df=dmy-all}} Outspoken editor from Bangladesh{{Cite news |last=Armitstead |first=Claire |date=2016-05-13 |title=Tahmima Anam: 'I have a complicated relationship with Bangladesh' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/13/tahmima-anam-i-have-complicated-relationship-with-bangladesh-interview |access-date=2025-03-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{cite magazine |title=A Daughter of Bangladeshi Revolutionaries Makes Sense of Life After War |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/tahmima-anam-trilogy-of-life-after-war-in-bangladesh |magazine=The New Yorker}}

Education

At the age of 17, Anam received a scholarship for Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated in 1997. 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".[https://harvardmagazine.com/2017/07/a-postmodern-youth A Postmodern Youth] Harvard Magazine Later, she completed her Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.{{cite web |url=https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/tahmima-anam-97-makes-grantas-best-of-young-british-novelists-list/ |title=Tahmima Anam '97 Makes Granta's "Best of Young British Novelists" List |publisher=Mount Holyoke College}}

Career

In March 2007, Anam's first novel, A Golden Age, was published by John Murray. Inspired by her parents, she set the novel during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It was a finalist for the Costa First Novel Award. The novel tells the story of a woman named Rehana Haque during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971.{{cite web |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/?pid=2&did=21510 |title=Bookseller report on Tahmima Anam |access-date=1 January 2007}} 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 freedom fighters, known as Mukti Bahini. She also worked on the set of Tareque and Catherine Masud’s critically acclaimed film Matir Moina (The Clay Bird), reflecting the war.{{cite news |title=The outsider |newspaper=Prothom Alo |date=13 January 2007}}

Anam's second novel, The Good Muslim, published in 2011, is a sequel to A Golden Age and deals with the aftermath of the war. It was long listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. In 2013, Anam was named one of Granta's "Best of Young British Novelists".{{Cite web |title=The Best of Young British Novelists |url=https://granta.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/GRANTA-Previous-Best-of-Young-winners.pdf |website=Granta}} In 2015, her short story "Garments", inspired by the Rana Plaza building collapse, was published and won the O. Henry Award[http://www.thedailystar.net/book-reviews/tahmima-anam-wins-o-henry-award-1424827 Tahmima Anam Wins O Henry Award] The Daily Star[https://www.randomhouse.com/anchor/ohenry/winners/ The O. Henry Prize Stories 2017 - Winning Stories] O. Henry Prize and was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vs2h6 BBC National Short Story Award] BBC Radio 4 In the same year, she became a judge for the Man Booker International Prize 2016.[https://themanbookerprize.com/resources/media/pressreleases/2015/08/25/man-booker-international-prize-2016-judging-panel-announced The Man Booker International Prize 2016: Judging Panel Announced] The Man Booker Prize

In 2016, Anam's novel The Bones of Grace was published by HarperCollins. The following year, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi, [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/syal-and-mcdermid-named-new-rsl-fellows-564396 "Rankin, McDermid and Levy named new RSL fellows"], The Bookseller, 7 June 2017.{{cite web |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/current-fellows/ |title=Current RSL Fellows |publisher=Royal Society of Literature |access-date=10 June 2017}} Anam's op-ed pieces have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian and in the New Statesman. In these, Anam has written about Bangladesh and its growing problems.{{cite news |title=A Burst of Energy in Bangladesh |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/opinion/a-burst-of-energy-in-bangladesh.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FAnam%2C%20Tahmima |newspaper=The New York Times | date=27 April 2016 |type=Opinion | last1=Anam | first1=Tahmima }}{{cite news |title=Is Bangladesh turning fundamentalist?' – and other questions I no longer wish to answer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/16/bangladesh-killings-atheist-gay-liberal-isis-tahmima-anam |newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite news |title=Bangladesh: Give me back my country |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2007/01/bangladesh-bnp-election-vote |work=New Statesman}}

In 2021, Anam 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 and shortlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2022.{{Cite book |last=Anam |first=Tahmima |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NXBJMKD/ |title=The Startup Wife |date=2021-06-03}}{{Cite web |title=Garmus, Ali, Keyes and more longlisted for Comedy Women in Print Prize |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/garmus-ali-keyes-and-more-longlisted-for-comedy-women-in-print-prize |access-date=2023-01-15 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}{{Cite web |title=2022/23 Prize {{!}} Comedy Women in Print |url=https://www.comedywomeninprint.co.uk/2022-prize |access-date=2023-04-05 |website=CWIP |language=en}}

In 2022, Anam gave a TEDx talk entitled "The Power of Holding Silence: Making the Workplace Work for Women".{{Cite web |title=The power of holding silence: Making the workplace work for women {{!}} Tahmima Anam {{!}} TEDxManchester - YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq_v_K4ODPQ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=www.youtube.com| date=13 May 2022 }} That same year, Anam's debut, A Golden Age, was chosen for the Queen’s jubilee book list, a list of 70 books from across the Commonwealth marking the seven decades of her reign.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-18 |title=The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/18/the-god-of-small-things-to-shuggie-bain-the-queens-jubilee-book-list |access-date=2022-06-18 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

Personal life

In 2010, she married American inventor Roland O. Lamb, whom she met at Harvard University. The couple has a son named Rumi.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/1161012/jsp/t2/story_112963.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119235254/https://www.telegraphindia.com/1161012/jsp/t2/story_112963.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 January 2018 |title=Tahmima Anam Completes Her 'Bangladesh Trilogy' with The Bones of Grace |work=The Telegraph |location=Kolkota}}{{cite news |last=Hong |first=Terry |url=http://www.bookslut.com/features/2011_07_017958.php |title=An Interview with Tahmima Anam |publisher=Bookslut |date=July 2011 |access-date=1 May 2012}} Rumi was born premature and, for five years, refused to eat – an ordeal Anam has written about.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/09/for-five-years-we-dreaded-every-meal-my-infant-sons-struggle-with-food|title='For five years we dreaded every meal': my infant son's struggle with food|last=Anam|first=Tahmima|date=2019-04-09|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-01-07|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} As of 2011, she lived in London.{{cite news |last=Roy |first=Amit |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110605/jsp/7days/story_14072500.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814122901/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110605/jsp/7days/story_14072500.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 August 2014 |title=Eye on England: Good Author |work=The Telegraph |location=Kolkota |date=5 June 2011 |access-date=17 October 2012}}

Bibliography

=Books=

{{cite book |title=A Golden Age |publisher=John Murray |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7195-6010-1}}
{{cite book |title=The Good Muslim |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-147876-5 |year=2011}}
{{cite book|last=|first=|title=The Bones of Grace|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0061478949|location=|pages=|year=2016}}
The Startup Wife. Canongate Books. 2021. {{ISBN|978-1838852481}}.

=Short stories=

{{cite magazine |year=2008 |title=Saving the World |magazine=Granta |location=London |issue=Autumn}}
{{cite magazine |year=2013 |title=Anwar Gets Everything |magazine=Granta |location=London |issue=Spring}}
{{cite magazine |title=Garments |magazine=Freeman's |location=London |year=2015 |issue=Fall 2015}}