Kamila shamsie biography

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Study Guides on Works by Kamila Shamsie

PERSONAL: Born , in Karachi, Pakistan; daughter of Muneeza Shamsie (a writer and editor) Education: Hamilton College, B.A.; University of Massachusetts, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Office—Hamilton College, College Hill Rd., Clinton, NY

CAREER: Writer. Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, creative writing teacher.

WRITINGS:

In the City by the Sea, Penguin (New York, NY),

Salt and Saffron, Bloomsbury USA (New York, NY),

Kartography, Bloomsbury (London, England),

SIDELIGHTS: Though she was born in Pakistan, Kamila Shamsie's first novel was written in English, the result of an upbringing and education that is dexterously chronicled in her debut, In the City by the Sea. Shamsie, like the protagonist Hasan, was born in Karachi, one of Pakistan's largest cities, and actual events from her childhood—the writer was born in —play an integral role in the turmoil of the young character's life. At the age of eleven, Hasan leads a pleasant life as the well-loved son of educated, liberal parents. His father is an attorney, while his artist mother runs a gallery. Both the father and an uncle, the popular head of a political party, have been educated at elite English universities—a legacy, in part, of Pakistan's former colonial ties to the British Empire—and rose to prominence after Pakistan gained independence in

This idyllic era suddenly ends when Hasan's uncle, Salman mamoo, is placed under house arrest after a political upheaval. When Shamsie was still a toddler, liberal Pakistan president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arrested and jailed after a military coup. Martial law was declared, and a dictatorship remained in place for several years until his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, became the first female leader elected to head a Muslim country. As the events of In the City by the Sea unfold, the young Hasan understands only some of the drama. The family is harassed, his mother's gallery is forced to close, but they are finally granted permission to

Interview

In two separate pieces, one video, one text, Kamila Shamsie describes the inspiration behind Burnt Shadows, her powerful, sweeping epic novel crossing generations, cultures and continents.

Kamila Shamsie describes the inspiration behind Burnt Shadows, her powerful, sweeping epic novel crossing generations, cultures and continents

I'd been interested - for lack of a better word - in the bombing of Nagasaki for years before writing 'Burnt Shadows.' As a university student in America I one heard someone say, 'Even if you accept the arguments used to justify Hiroshima, how do you justify Nagasaki.' For some reason it stuck in my mind - how could anyone witness the devastation of Hiroshima and three days later decide to repeat the act? Years later, when both Pakistan and India became nuclear states this question returned to me with greater urgency.

My original idea was to write about a Pakistani character whose grandmother was Japanese and had survived Nagasaki. But then I read John Hersey's 'Hiroshima', and came upon this line: "On some undressed bodies, the burns had made patterns - . . .on the skin of some women (since white repelled the heat from the bomb and dark clothes absorbed it and conducted it to their skin) the shapes of flowers they had had on their kimonos."  Right away, I had an image of a women with the tattoo of birds along her back, from the bird

Full Interview

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Pakistani and British writer and novelist (born )

Kamila ShamsieFRSL (Urdu: کاملہ شمسی; born 13 August ) is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel Home Fire (). Named on Granta magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has been described by The New Indian Express as "a novelist to reckon with and to look forward to." She also writes for publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, Index on Censorship and Prospect, and broadcasts on radio.

Early life and education

Shamsie was born into a well-to-do family of intellectuals in Karachi, Pakistan. Her mother is journalist and editor Muneeza Shamsie, her great-aunt was writer Attia Hosain and she is the granddaughter of memoirist Jahanara Habibullah. Her father is English.

Shamsie was brought up in Karachi, where she attended Karachi Grammar School. She went to the US as a college exchange student, and earned a BA in creative writing from Hamilton College, and an MFA from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was influenced by the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali.

Career

Shamsie wrote her first novel, In the City by the Sea, while still in college, and it was published in when she was It was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK, and Shamsie received the Prime Minister's Award for Literature in Pakistan in Her second novel, Salt and Saffron, followed in , after which she was selected as one of Orange's 21 Writers of the 21st century. Her third novel, Kartography (), received widespread critical acclaim and was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK. According to the review in Publishers Weekly: "