Kazi Anis Ahmed

Kazi Anis Ahmed is a Bangladeshi writer and publisher of the English-language daily newspaper Dhaka Tribune and Bengali-language online newspaper Bangla Tribune^[1] and the literary journal Bengal Lights.^[2] Ahmed is the author of two books: a short story collection called Good Night, Mr. Kissinger and a novel, The World in My Hands, published by Random House India. He has been called one of the most significant voices in Bangladesh today.^[3]

As an author of short stories and a novel, he is one of the leading propagandists of Bangladeshi English literature.^[4] Along with writers like Tahmima Anam and Maria Chaudhuri, Ahmed is part of a new generation of writers who use English to seek and reach international audience in the globalised world of the 21st century.^[5]

Career

Ahmed's debut collection of short stories, Good Night, Mr. Kissinger, was published in Bangladesh and launched at the Hay Festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2012.^[6] An American edition will be published in February 2014. The book has been hailed as a "poignant portrait of a city and the characters that live in the wake of great change" by fellow Bangladeshi writer Tahmima Anam.^[7]

Ahmed's first novel, The World in My Hands, was published by Random House India in December 2013. The book is a political satire that charts the fate of two friends – a newspaper editor and a successful property developer – whose relationship is bitterly tested when they find themselves on opposite sides of a crisis that upends their country's social order.^[8][9]

According to a January 2014 interview, Ahmed's next novel will be a comedy about foodies in New York.^[10]

In addition to his literary career, Ahmed runs Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate Ltd. with his family. Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate is the first USDA and SGS-certified 100% organic tea garden and cooperative in northern Bangladesh that is the single source for the tea company Teatulia. Teatulia tea is distributed in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, the United States, and will soon be available in Japan.^[11]

His first book, a collection of stories entitled Good Night, Mr. Kissinger, was published in 2012 by The University Press Limited.^[12] His first published story, "Forty Steps," appeared in the Minnesota Review (Spring 2000) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.^[13] Ahmed has also written commentary for the Wall Street Journal Asia and Newsweek International/Daily Beast, as well as a number of Bangladeshi newspapers and magazines.

He is a co-founder of Bengal Lights, an English literary journal based in Dhaka, which publishes both online and in print. Ahmed is also a co-founder of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, and is involved in a range of enterprises.^[14]

Ahmed is the Director and CEO of Organics, Retail and Education for Gemcon Group in Dhaka, and is Director of the Kazi and Kazi Tea Estate, Ltd. (KKTE). At KKTE, Ahmed has helped establish the guiding organic values and policies that allowed KKTE to emerge as the first successful organic tea estate in Bangladesh. He personally oversaw the international SGS Organic and USDA Organic certification processes. He is Co-Founder of the Teatulia brand of Kazi and Kazi Tea, which sells in the USA, UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Kuwait. Teatulia is the only Bangladeshi tea brand to sell in premium stores around the world, including Whole Foods in the US and Harrods in the UK.^[15]

Ahmed studied at Brown, Washington and New York Universities before returning to Bangladesh in 2004. In the USA, Ahmed studied with Edmund White and Stanley Elkin, among others.^[16]

Education

K. Anis Ahmed was educated in Dhaka, Brown University, Washington University and New York University.^[8]

Selected works

• Good Night, Mr. Kissinger (Unnamed Press, 2014) ISBN 978-1-939419-04-0
• The World in My Hands (Random House India, 2013)

See also

• List of Bangladeshi writers
• Bangladeshi English literature

References

External links

• Official Website