Zadie Smith

English novelist Zadie Smith is internationally known for her intellectually gifted works of fiction. Smith’s first novel, White Teeth, published in 2000 when she was still in her twenties, garnered both commercial success and critical acclaim, establishing her as one of the most talented writers of her generation.

Born on October 25, 1975 in North London, Smith is of British and Jamaican descent. She was raised by her father, a working-class bus driver, and her mother, an emotional health home carer. Smith’s mother ingrained in her the importance of education, encouraging her to read books and attend writer’s workshops. Smith was an eager reader and wrote her first story at the age of nine.

Smith attended King's College London, where she double majored in English and History of Art. It was during her university years that Smith wrote White Teeth and submitted it to literary agents. Upon its publication, White Teeth was an instant success, and was even adapted into a four-part television adaptation for the BBC.

Smith’s second novel, The Autograph Man, was released in 2002 and was also well received. Smith’s third novel, On Beauty, was released in 2005 and received the Orange Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Smith’s fourth novel NW was released in 2012, about which the Guardian declared Smith as “a writer of both grace and power”. Her fifth novel, Swing Time, was released in 2016 to similarly warm reviews.

Apart from novels, Smith has a wide range of writing credentials, including essays, short stories, and journalism. In 2013, she wrote an updated version of J.M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians and was edited into the PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories in 2017. While Smith has written extensively in regards to politics in Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books and the New Yorker.

Smith has also taught writing courses at a variety of high-profile institutions, including Columbia, New York, Harvard and Cambridge, where she is a professor of fiction. She has been invited to speak at numerous universities and events, such as the TEDx Talk in 2011 and was appointed to the position of a judge for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

Smith is living proof that hard work, ambition, and dedication can lead to success. With five acclaimed novels under her belt and a plethora of awards, Smith’s legacy will no doubt leave an indisputable impact in the literary world.