Zia Haider Rahman
Zia Haider Rahman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sylhet Division, Bangladesh |
| Occupation(s) | Author, broadcaster, commentator |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Known for | Debut novel "In the Light of What We Know", James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipient |
Zia Haider Rahman () is a British author and broadcaster. His debut novel, In the Light of What We Know (2014), achieved global recognition and has been translated into several languages. He earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the United Kingdom’s most longstanding literary accolade, previously awarded to distinguished writers such as Salman Rushdie and Cormac McCarthy.
Biography
Originating from the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, Rahman’s family relocated to England during his early years, initially residing as squatters before moving to a council housing estate. His father held jobs as a bus conductor and waiter, while his mother worked as a seamstress. He attended Hampstead School in London and has described his childhood as one of economic hardship within an affluent society.
Rahman pursued higher education at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in mathematics. He continued advanced studies in mathematics, economics, and law at several institutions, including the Maximilianeum, University of Cambridge, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Yale University. Professionally, he briefly worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in New York before shifting to corporate law and international human rights law with the Open Society Foundations, concentrating on combating large-scale corruption in Africa. Additionally, he has engaged with Transparency International as an anti-corruption advocate in South Asia.
Work
Rahman’s first novel, In the Light of What We Know, garnered widespread critical praise from figures such as James Wood, Joyce Carol Oates, Louise Adler, and Amitava Kumar. The book appeared on numerous year-end best book compilations. Much of the novel was composed during his residency at Yaddo in upstate New York.
His essays and writings have been published in outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The New York Review of Books. He is a regular contributor to A Point of View, a weekly program on BBC Radio 4 that attracts an audience exceeding one million listeners. Rahman also produces documentary media content.
As a commentator, Rahman is known for his critique of liberal elites. In an interview with The New York Review of Books, he discussed the restricted social mobility within liberal elite groups, emphasizing that racial identity often takes precedence over class distinctions.
He is currently working on a nonfiction memoir exploring his nuanced engagement with liberalism.
At Harvard University, Rahman led an initiative combining machine learning and network science to chart the political, business, and social networks of global elites with the goal of promoting greater transparency.
Honours
In August 2015, Rahman was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Britain’s oldest literary honor, previously received by eminent authors including E. M. Forster and Salman Rushdie.
His fellowships include the Walter Jackson Bate Fellowship at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a Montgomery Fellowship at Dartmouth College, an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellowship at New America, a Senior Fellowship at Vienna's Bruno Kreisky Forum, as well as residencies at Yaddo. He has been affiliated with Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and held a Director’s Visitorship at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.
Rahman has delivered prominent public lectures such as the 2020 Montgomery Fellowship Lecture at Dartmouth, the 2018 Reckford Lecture in European Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, and the 2015 Ashok Kumar Sarkar Memorial Lecture during the Kolkata Book Fair. He has spoken at prestigious universities including Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU, LSE, and Oxford. Notably, he served as keynote speaker at the 2014 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, succeeding V. S. Naipaul.
In 2016, he was appointed writer in residence at the University of Amsterdam and received the inaugural International Ranald MacDonald Award. The following year, Rahman was conferred an honorary doctorate by Southern New Hampshire University, where he also taught as visiting professor for one academic year.
Rahman has participated as a judge on panels for major international literary awards. In 2018, he was named a judge for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He also adjudicated the 2016 PEN Pinter Prize, which was awarded to Margaret Atwood. In connection with this prize, Rahman authored a widely referenced op-ed in The New York Times analyzing how British literary elites recognize writers of color.