Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie’s first novel, In the City by the Sea, was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and her second, Salt and Saffron, won her a place on Orange’s list of ’21 Writers for the 21st Century’. In 1999 she received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature and in 2004 the Patras Bokhari Award – both awarded by the Pakistan Academy of Letters.
Born in Pakistan in 1973, Kamila now lives in London and Karachi. Author of five novels, her latest, Burnt Shadows (2009), traces the devastating legacy of the 20th century from Nagasaki to Guantanamo Bay through the experiences of two families – one from the West, one from the East. Salman Rushdie is a big fan: “Kamila Shamsie is a writer of immense ambition and strength. She understands a great deal about the ways in which the world’s many tragedies and histories shape one another, and about how human beings can try to avoid being crushed by their fate and can discover their humanity, even in the fiercest combat zones of the age. Burnt Shadows is an absorbing novel that commands, in the reader, a powerful emotional and intellectual response.”
Kamila also writes for The Guardian, The New Statesman, Index on Censorship and Prospect magazine, and broadcasts on radio.
Kamila will be running a children’s writing workshop with Will Fiennes, as well as performing a specially tailored event for adults (watch this space for more information) at this year’s Port Eliot Fesitval.
“The delight in words and all their shades of meaning, [is] characteristic of all her writing… The voice that guides us around this world darts with wit and lightness in a way that is unique and often lovely.”
The Guardian
Links:
- Kamila Shamsie’s Literary Top 10
- Interview in The Daily Telegraph
Video:
Kamila talks about her new book, Burnt Shadows
