Tania James (born 1980) is an

Indian American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

novelist.

Life

She was born in Chicago, Illinois, James was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from Harvard University with a BA in film making. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia's School of the Arts in 2006. Her first novel, ''Atlas of Unknowns'' (Knopf) was published in April 2009. A family saga that alternates between Kerala, India and New York City. The novel was a '' San Francisco Chronicle'' Best Book of 2009 and a New York Times Editor's Choice. ''Atlas of Unknowns'' was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The foreign rights of ''Atlas of Unknowns'' have been sold in eight countries. Her second book, ''Aerogrammes'' (Knopf) was published in May 2012. She has also written a number of short stories "The Other Gandhi" published in '' Guernica Magazine''. "Girl Marries Ghost" a serialized short story in ''

The Louisville Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is the highest circulation newspape ...

''. "Hortense", a short story in Five Chapters. James's novel, ''The Tusk That Did the Damage'' was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2015. It was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and longlisted for the Financial Times Oppenheimer Fund Emerging Voices Award. In 2023, Knopf published her book ''Loot'', which begins its tale in India around A.D. 1800. It is a fictional tale about the artists who mad
Tipu's Sultan Tiger
a famous wooden automaton, shaped as tiger mauling a European soldier. The work of fiction follows a Mysorean wood carver and a French clock maker who created the tiger, and follows them long after Tipu Sultan is killed in a battle with the English. Tania James lives in Washington, D.C. and teaches creative writing at the MFA program at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

Works

* ''Atlas of Unknowns,'' Knopf, 2009. * ''Aerogrammes,'' Knopf, 2012. * ''The Tusk That Did the Damage'', Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. * ''Loot,'' Knopf, 2023.

References

External links

taniajames.com

Interview with National Public Radio

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Tania 1980 births Living people 21st-century American women writers Harvard University alumni Novelists from Chicago Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Writers from Kentucky 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American women short story writers Novelists from Kentucky George Mason University faculty