Kamila Shamsie is one of the most celebrated contemporary novelists in English. She was born into a literary family in Karachi, Pakistan in 1973: the daughter of journalist and writer Muneeza Shamsie; granddaughter of the memoirist Jahanara Habibullah; and great-niece of the novelist Attia Hosain (Shamsie, 2009c). After attending Karachi Grammar School, Shamsie studied at Hamilton College and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the United States where she pursued creative writing under the renowned Kashmiri-American poet and teacher Agha Shahid Ali whose influence is felt in many of her subsequent works.
For several years, Shamsie moved between Pakistan, the United States, and Britain, before finally settling in London. Her first novel, In the City by the Sea, was published in
5136 words
Citation: Morey, Peter. "Kamila Shamsie". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 March 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5957, accessed 23 November 2024.]
