Daily Times

What a star! This 43-year-old writer has done the country proud by flourishing in the field of literature, winning laurels across the globe and reaching out to her readers with consecutive bestsellers. A regular at the literary festivals both in her home country and abroad, Kamila Shamsie is not just a seasoned author but is also a recognised international literary scholar. Her dedication towards her work and her flawless expression in writing has had her readers engaged and hooked on every word, eagerly awaiting her next piece of writing. Her work makes her travel far and wide and wherever she goes, she does the country proud. There is not one festival or award ceremony that doesn’t have Kamila on its panel. She is indeed a source of inspiration for all.

“You have this ability to find beauty in weird places”

Kamila Naheed Shamsie, daughter of renowned journalist and editor Muneeza Shamsie and granddaughter of Begum Jahanara Habibullah, is a Pakistani novelist who writes in English.

She was brought up in Karachi where she attended the Karachi Grammar School. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College and an MFA from the MFA Programme for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she was influenced by the writings of Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali. In 2007, she moved to London and is now a dual national of the UK and Pakistan.

“Love is like an eternal flame, once it is lit, it will continue to burn for all time”

Kamila wrote and published her first novel In the City by the Sea, while still at UMass in 1998. It was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK, besides winning the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan in 1999. Her second novel Salt & Saffron, followed in 2000, after which she was selected as one of Orange’s 21 Writers of the 21st century. Her third novel Kartography also received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys award in the UK. Both Kartography and her next novel Broken Verses, won the Patras Bokhari Award from the Academy of Letters in Pakistan. Her fifth novel Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction.

In 2009, Kamila donated the short story “The Desert Torso” to Oxfam’s Ox-Tales project – four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the air collection. In 2010, Kamila won an award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. She attended the 2011 Jaipur Literature Festival, where she spoke about her style of writing. She participated in the Bush Theatre’s 2011 project, Sixty-Six Books, with a piece based on a book of the King James Bible. In 2013, she was included in the Granta list of 20 best young British writers. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her recent work, God in Every Stone, was shortlisted for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize.

Achievements

Award-winning Debut

Writer Kamila Shamsie wrote her first novel In the City by the Sea, while she was still studying. It was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK, and Kamila Shamsie received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan for this very book.

A String of Best Sellers

After her second novel Salt & Saffron, Shamsie was selected as one of Orange’s 21 Writers of the 21st century. Her third novel Kartography received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys award once again in the UK. Both Kartography and her next novel Broken Verses, have won the Patras Bokhari Award from the Academy of Letters in Pakistan. Her fifth novel Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and also won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction. A God in Every Stone was shortlisted for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize.

Acclaimed Literary Scholar

She has attended the Jaipur Literature Festival as well as myriads of other Pakistani literary festival as well where she spoke about her style of writing. She participated in the Bush Theatre’s 2011 project Sixty-Six Books. In 2013, she was included in the Granta list of 20 best young writers. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.