TAHMIMA ANAM WINS COMMONWEALTH 'FIRST BOOK' PRIZE
(18 May 2008)

Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam was won the Commonwealth Writer's 'First Book' pize for her debut novel 'A Golden Age'. The overall winners of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize were announced today (Sunday 18 May) at the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa. South African Minister of Arts and Culture Z Pallo Jordan awarded a cheque for £5,000 to Tahmima Anam. The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, an increasingly valued and sought-after award for fiction, is presented annually by the Commonwealth Foundation.

The Prize aims to reward the best Commonwealth fiction written in English, by both established and new writers, and to take their works to a global audience, thereby increasing appreciation of and building understanding between cultures.

On winning the award, Tahmima Anam said "“I’m honoured and humbled to be the first ever Bangladeshi winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. I wrote 'A Golden Age' because I wanted the story of the Bangladesh war to reach an international audience. It is a story of great tragedy, but also represents a moment of hope and possibility for my sometimes troubled country."

The overall winners for Best Book and Best First Book were chosen by a panel of judges from six different countries who met over two days during the final programme. Speaking on behalf of the pan-Commonwealth panel, its Chair, the Hon Justice Nicholas Hasluck, commented “The Prize for the Best First Book goes to Tahmima Anam for A Golden Age.

“This is the first major fictional account in English of the creation of Bangladesh. Housewife, widow, and mother, Rehana Haque, exemplifies the power of the individual to resist and ultimately prevail against the ravages of war. The assured and lyrical prose evokes the tumultuous birthing of a new nation in an intensely personal family narrative.”

ABOUT TAHMIMA ANAM

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and raised in Paris, New York City, and Bangkok. She comes from a family of writers: her grandfather was a famous political satirist, and her father is the editor of Bangladesh’s largest-circulating English daily newspaper. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College, where she studied with UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion. Tahmima’s writing has been published in Granta magazine, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She is a currently a contributing editor at The New Statesman.

In 2001, Tahmima began research on the Bangladesh War of Independence and started work on A Golden Age. She travelled throughout Bangladesh, interviewing ex-freedom fighters, military officers, students, and survivors of the 1971 war. The novel is a fictionalised account of these war stories, combined with her own family history. In 2005, she received a grant from The Arts Council to complete the novel.

'A GOLDEN AGE' BY TAHMIMA AGE
	'A Golden Age' by Tahmima Anam Published in Hardback (8 Mar 2007) By John Murray 288 pages Language English ISBN-10: 0719560098 Guide Price: £14.99 Click here to buy this book today!
It is spring 1971 in East Pakistan and the country is on the brink of a revolution. Rehana Haque is throwing a party for her children, Sohail and Maya, in the rose-filled garden of the house she has built, while beyond her doorstep the city is buzzing with excitement after recent elections. None of the guests at Rehana's party can foresee what will happen in the days and months that follow, and her family's life is about to change forever.