Zadie Smith is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on
Granta'sGranta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
list of 20 best young authors. She joined
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Creative Writing Program as a tenured professor on September 1, 2010.
Early life
Zadie Smith was born as
Sadie Smith in the northwest London borough of
BrentIn 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...
– a largely working-class area – to a
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n mother, Yvonne Bailey, and a British father, Harvey Smith. Her mother had grown up in Jamaica and emigrated to
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1969. Their marriage was her father's second. Zadie has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers, one of whom is the rapper and stand-up comedian
Doc BrownDoc Brown is a former British rapper, currently an established comedian, actor, screenwriter and voiceover artist.- Early Work :...
and the other is rapper Luc Skyz. As a child she was fond of tap dancing; as a teenager she considered a career as an actress in
musical theatreMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
; and as a university student she earned money as a
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer and wanted to become a
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. When she was 14, she changed her name to "Zadie". Despite earlier ambitions, literature emerged as her principal interest and would provide a model for her future career.
Education
Smith attended the local state schools, Malorees Junior School and
Hampstead Comprehensive SchoolHampstead School is a large multi-ethnic comprehensive school in the London borough of Camden. The school building is one of the oldest in the borough...
, and
King's CollegeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, Cambridge University where she studied
English literatureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. In an interview with
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 2000, Smith corrected a newspaper assertion that she left Cambridge with a double First. "Actually, I got a Third in my Part Ones", she said.
Zadie Smith seems to have been rejected for a place in the Cambridge Footlights by the popular British comedy double act
Mitchell and WebbMitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, comprising David Mitchell and Robert Webb . They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show....
, whilst all three were studying at Cambridge University in the 1990s.
At Cambridge she published a number of
short storiesShort Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
in a collection of new student writing called "The Mays Anthology". (See Short stories.) These attracted the attention of a
publisherPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
who offered her a contract for her first novel. Smith decided to contact a
literary agentA literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
and was taken on by A.P. Watt. Smith returned to guest-edit the anthology in 2001.
Career
White TeethWhite Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London...
was introduced to the publishing world in 1997, long before it was completed. On the basis of a partial manuscript an
auctionAn auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
among different publishers for the rights started, with
Hamish HamiltonHamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton . Confusingly, Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton...
being successful. Smith completed
White Teeth during her final year at Cambridge. Published in 2000, the novel became a bestseller immediately. It was praised internationally and won a number of awards (see Novels). The novel was adapted for television in 2002 by
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. She also served as "writer in residence" at the
ICAThe Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
in London and subsequently published, as editor, an anthology of sex writing,
Piece of Flesh, as the culmination of this role.
In interviews she reported that the hype surrounding her first novel had caused her to suffer a short spell of
writer's blockWriter's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked"...
. Nevertheless, her second novel,
The Autograph Man, was published in 2002 and was a commercial success, although the critical response was not as positive as it had been to
White Teeth.
After the publication of
The Autograph Man, Smith visited the United States as a 2002–2003
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced StudyThe Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard is an educational institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the semiautonomous components of Harvard University. It is heir to the name and buildings of Radcliffe College, but unlike that historical institution, its focus is directed...
Fellow at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. She started work on a still unreleased book of essays,
The Morality of the Novel, aka "Fail Better", in which she considers a selection of 20th century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. Some portions of this book presumably are included in the essay collection
Changing My Mind, published in November 2009.
The second novel was followed by another,
On BeautyOn Beauty is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith. It takes its title from an essay by Elaine Scarry . The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States...
, published in September 2005 and which is set largely in and around Greater Boston and which attracted more acclaim. This third novel was shortlisted for the
Man Booker PrizeThe Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
, and won the 2006
Orange Prize for FictionThe Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
.
In December 2008 she guest edited the
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
Today programmeToday is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
.
After teaching fiction at
Columbia University School of the ArtsThe Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies...
, she joined
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
as a tenured professor of fiction as of September 1, 2010.
As of the March 2010 issue, Smith became the monthly New Books reviewer for
Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
.
Personal life
Smith met
Nick LairdNicholas 'Nick' Laird is a novelist and poet who was born, and grew up, in Cookstown, County Tyrone. He studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he attained a first in English. He went on to work at the global law firm Allen & Overy in London for six years, before leaving to concentrate...
at Cambridge University. They married in 2004 in
the Chapel of King's CollegeKing's College Chapel is the chapel to King's College of the University of Cambridge, and is one of the finest examples of late Gothic English architecture, while its early Renaissance rood screen separating the nave and chancel, erected in 1532-36 in a striking contrast of style, has been called...
, Cambridge. Smith dedicated
On BeautyOn Beauty is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith. It takes its title from an essay by Elaine Scarry . The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States...
to "my dear Laird". The couple lived in
MontiMonti is the name of one of the twelve Rioni of Rome, rione I. The name literally means mountains in Italian and comes from the fact that the Esquiline and the Viminal Hills, and parts of the Quirinal and the Caelian Hills belonged to this rione...
, Rome, Italy from November 2006–2007 and are now based between New York City and Queen's Park, London. They have a daughter, Katherine (born 2009).
Short stories
- "Mirrored Box" in The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories (1995)
- "The Newspaper Man" in The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories (1996)
- "Mrs. Begum's Son and the Private Tutor" in The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories (1997)
- "Picnic, Lightning" in The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories (1997)
- "Stuart" in The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Winter Fiction Issue 1999.
- "The Girl with Bangs" in Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is a literary journal, first published in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers. The first issue featured only works rejected by other magazines, but thereafter the journal began to include pieces written with McSweeney's in mind. McSweeney’s has since published works by...
, Issue 6, 2001.
- "The Trials of Finch" in The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
Winter Fiction Issue 2002.
- "Martha, Martha" in Granta
Granta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
81: Best of Young British Novelists (2003)
- "Hanwell in Hell" in The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
27 September 2004.
- "Hanwell Snr" in The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
14 May 2007; collected in The Book of Other PeopleThe Book of Other People is a collection of short stories, published in 2008 by Penguin Books. Selected and edited by Zadie Smith, it contains 23 short stories by 23 different authors, among them Nick Hornby, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave Eggers, as well as Smith herself...
(2007)
Novels
- White Teeth
White Teeth is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London...
(2000)
- The Autograph Man
The Autograph Man, published in 2002, is the second novel by Zadie Smith. It follows the progress of a Jewish-Chinese Londoner named Alex-Li Tandem, who buys and sells autographs for a living and is obsessed with celebrities. Eventually, his obsession culminates in a meeting with the elusive...
(2002)
- On Beauty
On Beauty is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith. It takes its title from an essay by Elaine Scarry . The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States...
(2005)
Edited collections
- Piece of Flesh (2001), an anthology of erotic short stories featuring Daren King
Laurence Daren King is an award-winning contemporary English novelist. His debut novel, Boxy an Star, was shortlisted for the 1999 Guardian First Book Award and longlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. He won first prize in the Nestle Children's Book Prize in 2006...
, Toby LittToby Litt is an English writer, born in Bedford in 1968. He studied at Bedford Modern School, read English at Worcester College, Oxford and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia where he was taught by Malcolm Bradbury....
and Matt ThorneMatt Thorne is an English writer born in 1974 who has published seven novels. Thorne grew up in Bristol, England, and was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. Thorne's first book, Tourist, was published in 1998. The book is an attack on the negative effects of tourism on...
.
- The Book of Other People
The Book of Other People is a collection of short stories, published in 2008 by Penguin Books. Selected and edited by Zadie Smith, it contains 23 short stories by 23 different authors, among them Nick Hornby, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín, Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave Eggers, as well as Smith herself...
(2007)
Non-fiction
- "On the Road: American Writers and Their Hair", essay written to be read aloud at Neal Pollack's Timothy McSweeney's
McSweeney's is an American publishing house founded by editor Dave Eggers.Apart from its book list, McSweeney's is responsible for four regular publications: the quarterly literary journal,...
Festival of Literature, Theater, and Music, 2001.
- "We proceed in Iraq as hypocrites and cowards - and the world knows it" in The Guardian, 27 February 2003.
- "The divine Ms H" in The Guardian, 1 July 2003, an essay on Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
.
- "The Limited Circle is Pure" in The New Republic, 3 November 2003, an essay on Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
for a 2005 reissue of The TrialThe Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never...
, for which she also wrote a foreword.
- "Love, Actually" in The Guardian, 1 November 2003, an essay on E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
, based on her lecture at the Gielgud TheatreThe Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
in London on 22 October 2003.
- "You Are In Paradise" in The New Yorker, 14 June 2004, essay on holidays.
- "Shades of Greene" in The Guardian, 18 September 2004, introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of The Quiet American
The Quiet American is an anti-war novel by British author Graham Greene, first published in United Kingdom in 1955 and in the United States in 1956. It was adapted into films in 1958 and 2002. The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French...
by Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
.
- "The Zen of Eminem" in VIBE
Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers...
2005, an essay on the rap star EminemMarshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
.
- "We are family" in The Guardian, 4 March 2005, an interview by Zadie Smith with her brother Doc Brown
Doc Brown is a former British rapper, currently an established comedian, actor, screenwriter and voiceover artist.- Early Work :...
.
- "Nature's Work of Art" in The Guardian, 15 September 2005, an essay on Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
.
- "Fail better" in The Guardian, 13 January 2007, an essay on writing.
- "What does soulful mean?" in The Guardian, 1 September 2007, an essay on Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
's Their Eyes Were Watching GodTheir Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel and the best-known work by African American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel garnered attention and controversy at the time of its publication, and has come to be regarded as a seminal...
.
- "F. Kafka, Everyman" in The New York Review of Books, 17 July 2008, a review of The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay, by Louis Begley.
- "Dead man laughing" in The New Yorker, 22 & 29 December 2008, a personal history of humour appreciation in her family.
- Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays (Penguin Press, 12 November 2009), a collection of essays on writing.
- "An essay is an act of imagination. It still takes quite as much art as fiction" in The Guardian, 21 November 2009, an essay on the novel.
- "Generation Why?" in The New York Review of Books, 25 November 2010, a review of The Social Network
The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits...
, a film directed by David FincherDavid Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
, and You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, by Jaron LanierJaron Zepel Lanier is an American computer scientist, best known for popularizing the term virtual reality .A pioneer in the field of VR, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves...
.
External links
- "Girl Wonder" on Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
(2000).
- "Only Connect", an interview with Zadie Smith by Joy Press of the Village Voice.
- She's young, black, British - and the first publishing sensation of the millennium, an interview with the Guardian.
- "White Knees", an essay on Smith's body of work by Wyatt Mason
-Background and education:Mason was raised in Manhattan. He attended The Fieldston School in New York, the University of Pennsylvania, and also studied literature at Columbia University and the University of Paris.-Career:...
in the October 2005 issue of Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
.
- Smith article archive from The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...