K. ANIS AHMED

K. ANIS AHMED

Writer, Editor & Publisher

K. Anis Ahmed has published three works of fiction so far: Good Night, Mr. Kissinger (Unnamed Press; USA); The World In My Hands (Random House India) and Forty Steps (Bengal Lights; Bangladesh). While these three works – respectively, a collection of stories, a novel and a novella – were all set in Bangladesh, his new novel, The New Barbarians, takes place in a post-crash NY where the consumeristic appetites of the hyper-rich are unashamedly unabated.

Ahmed is the publisher of Dhaka Tribune, a national daily, and a co-director of Dhaka Lit Fest, which over the years has hosted luminaries ranging from V. S. Naipaul, William Dalrymple, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Ben Okri, Vijay Seshadri and Tilda Swinton among many others. Ahmed is also a co-founder and Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, a non-profit, and the only liberal arts college in Bangladesh. Ahmed, a passionate advocate for free speech, is the current President of PEN Bangladesh.

Ahmed grew up in Dhaka and studied at Brown, Washington and New York Universities, receiving a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from the last place. Ahmed writes fiction in English, and op-eds in both English and in Bengali. His op-eds have appeared over the years in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian/Observer, Financial Times, Time, Newsweek, Daily Beast among other places.

Ahmed co-curated a cameo of Bangladeshi writers for Granta and a special edition on Bangladeshi literature for Wasafiri. He has also written literary essays for World Literature Today and Electric Literature. Ahmed is currently at work on a new novel, and divides his time mainly between Dhaka and Dubai (but with frequent visits to NYC and London).