Tahmima Anam

Tahmima Anam is a Bangladeshi-born British novelist, columnist, and anthropologist. Her debut novel, A Golden Age (2007), was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Prize and was the winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. A Golden Age is a story of hope set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence. The book was translated into 22 languages.

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her grandfather is renowned satirist Abul Mansur Ahmed. She was raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok.

After studying at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, she earned a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology. Later, she completed her MA in creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Tahmima Anam is the author of the Bengal Trilogy, which chronicles three generations of the Haque family from the Bangladesh war of independence to the present day.

Her debut novel, A Golden Age, was followed in 2011 by The Good Muslim. The sequel was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. The final part of her Bengal trilogy, The Bones of Grace, was only released in 2016. The following year, Tahmima Anam was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

She is also the author of the short story Garments (2015), inspired by the Rana Plaza building collapse with a death toll of 1,134, which won the O. Henry Award and was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.

She has written columns for Granta, The New York Times, and the Guardian.

In 2021, her novel The Startup Wife was selected as the Best Book of 2021 by the Observer, Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Red, and the Daily Mail. It is a feminist look at startup culture and modern partnerships.

In 2022, Anam gave a TEDx talk entitled "The Power of Holding Silence: Making the Workplace Work for Women."

Tahmima Anam currently lives in Hackney, London.

Photo credit: Twitter @tahmima