Tahmima among top 20 young British novelists

Best young novelists of decade named, Tahmima among top British 20

Celebrated Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam has been named among the 20 best young British novelists of the decade by acclaimed literary magazine Granta.
Previously, the UK-based magazine bestowed the honour on authors such as Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith.
Anam’s first novel, “A Golden Age,” won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Costa First Novel Prize. Her follow-up novel, “The Good Muslim,” was nominated for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.
Granta has been publishing its once-in-a-decade selection of the 20 best British novelists aged under 40 since 1983. Granta is widely renowned in the literary world for its efforts to bring to light young writers who would go on to dominate British literature, garnering critical and commercial success.
This year’s list, announced at the British Council in London on Monday night, has majority of women on it and also writers from multicultural backgrounds.
In addition to Anam, the list includes: Naomi Alderman, Ned Beauman, Jenni Fagan, Adam Foulds, Xiaolu Guo, Sarah Hall, Steven Hall, Joanna Kavenna, Benjamin Markovits, Nadifa Mohamed, Helen Oyeyemi, Ross Raisin, Sunjeev Sahota, Taiye Selasi, Kamila Shamsie, Zadie Smith, David Szalay, Adam Thirlwell and Evie Wyld.
More than 150 authors applied for inclusion on the list. To be eligible, the writers have to be 40 or younger, should hold a British passport, and should have published or have a contract to publish at least one work of fiction.
Anam’s first two novels are part of a planned trilogy on the Liberation War of Bangladesh. She completed her PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, London.
Her writing has been published in Granta, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Financial Times.
Tahmima Anam is the daughter of Shaheen Anam, executive director of the Manusher Jonno Foundation and Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star. She is the granddaughter of late Akikunnessa Ahmed and Abul Mansur Ahmed, who was a writer, politician and journalist.

Another British-Bangladeshi writer, Monica Ali, was included on Granta’s 2003 list.