Aida Edemariam is an

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist based in the UK, who has worked in New York, Toronto and London. She was formerly deputy review and books editor of the Canadian ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', and is now a senior feature writer and editor at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in the UK. She lives in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Her memoir about her Ethiopian grandmother, ''The Wife's Tale: A Personal History'', won the

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

in 2019.

Biography

Aida was born to an

n father and a

mother. She grew up in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

, the capital of

. She studied English literature at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. In 2014 her then forthcoming memoir, ''The Wife's Tale: A Personal History'' – the story of Edemariam's Ethiopian grandmother, Yetemegnu – was awarded the Royal Society of Literature's

Jerwood Award The Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction were financial awards made to assist new writers of non-fiction to carry out new research, and/or to devote more time to writing. The awards were administrated by the Royal Society of ...

for a non-fiction work in progress. Informed by the author's 70 hours of interviews and conversations in Amharic with Yetemegnu, ''The Wife's Tale'' received favourable critical on its publication in February 2018 by Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, with the reviewer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' finding it "enriching", and

Lucy Hughes-Hallett Lucy Angela Hughes-Hallett (born 7 December 1951) is a British cultural historian, biographer and novelist. In November 2013, she won the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction for her biography of the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio, ''The Pike ...

writing in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'': "To read ''The Wife's Tale'' is not just to hear about times past and (for a western reader) far away, but to be transported into them." Nilanjana Roy in ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' described it as an "outstanding and unusual memoir" in which Edemariam traces a century of Ethiopian history through the life of her nonagenarian grandmother. Selecting it as one of "the best books by African writers in 2019", Samira Sawlani on ''African Arguments'' concluded: "Aida Edemariam has gifted the world a priceless insight into history through her grandmother's eyes." Edemariam was awarded the

for ''The Wife's Tale'' in May 2019. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by Margaret Busby."New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby"
''Reading to Transgress'', 9 March 2020.

References

External links

Aida Edemariam page
at ''The Guardian''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edemariam, Aida Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Toronto alumni The Guardian journalists Canadian people of Ethiopian descent 21st-century Canadian journalists Canadian women journalists 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Ethiopian writers Year of birth missing (living people)