Tania Rachel James (born 1980) is an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. She is known for her works in novels ''Atlas of Unknowns'', ''Aerogrammes'', ''The Tusk That Did the Damage'' and ''Loot''. She has also written many short stories.

Early life

Tania Rachel James was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, to Indian

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

parents from

Kottayam district Kottayam () is one of List of districts of Kerala, 14 districts in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Kerala, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettu ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Her parents immigrated to the US in 1975. She was raised in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

. Her middle name is named after her late maternal grandmother Rachel Kurian. She is the middle sibling of two sisters. She "can understand

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

well, and that's it." Her parents were avid readers. According to James, her father has "always been interested in a broad array of writers, from Conan Doyle to Camus to Garcia Marquez, plus he has a wicked comic timing. My mother might be the best storyteller in the family. My older sister writes the loveliest letters (a lost art I think) and my younger sister used to write poetry and stories before she went the medical route." She likes reading and was inspired to write when she saw how writers "were able to create worlds that seduce a reader and I burned with a desire to do with the readers what the writers had done to me". She enjoyed

horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...

and writers

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

and

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

as a child. She also read books of Malayalam writers M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Paul Zacharia and O.V. Vijayan in English translation. She also stated '' The God of Small Things'' by

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (; born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. ...

an "incredible book". At age 16, she aspired to become a writer. Speaking to

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

, she said: She graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with a BA in filmmaking. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia's School of the Arts in 2006.

Career

Her first novel, ''Atlas of Unknowns'' (Knopf) was published in April 2009. A

family saga The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often ...

that alternates between

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the novel was a ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' Best Book of 2009 and a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

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 several short stories "The Other Gandhi" published in '' Guernica Magazine''. "Girl Marries Ghost" a serialized short story in '' The Louisville Courier-Journal''. "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. She taught undergraduate and graduate level fiction at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. 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 clockmaker who created the tiger and follows them long after Tipu Sultan is killed in a battle with the English.

Personal life

Tania James lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband Vivek Maru and son. She teaches creative writing at the MFA program at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

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 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American novelists American women short story writers American people of Indian descent American people of Malayali descent American writers of Indian descent American women writers of Indian descent Novelists from Kentucky George Mason University faculty