Novelist Zadie Smith was born in North London in 1975 to an English father and a Jamaican mother. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University before graduating in 1997. Zadie Smith writes regularly for The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. In 2017 she was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and received the 2017 City College of New York鈥檚 Langston Hughes Medal. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of Creative Writing at New York University.
Her acclaimed first novel, "White Teeth," is a vibrant portrait of contemporary multi-cultural London, told through the stories of three ethnically diverse families.
In 2003 and 2013 Ms. Smith was named by Granta magazine as one of 20 "Best of Young British Novelists." "On Beauty" won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction and her novel "NW" was named as one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2012.
She has published three collections of essays, "Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays," "Feel Free" and "Intimations," which was chosen as one of Oprah's Best Books of 2020.
Zadie Smith鈥檚 collection of short stories, "Grand Union," was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Watch the Literary Award Ceremony at the Sheldon.
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