- Tash Aw
Tash Aw, whose real name is Aw Ta-Shi (
Simplified Chinese : 歐大旭; born4 October 1971 ) is a writer living inLondon .Biography
Born in
Taipei ,Taiwan , to Malaysian parents, he grew up inKuala Lumpur , Malaysia before moving toEngland in his teens. He studied law at theUniversity of Cambridge and at theUniversity of Warwick and then moved to London to write. After graduating he worked at a number of jobs, including as a lawyer for four years whilst writing his debut novel, which he completed during the creative writing course at theUniversity of East Anglia .Works
His first novel, "
The Harmony Silk Factory ", was published in 2005. After Malaysian journalists reported that he had been paid over £500,000 for the novel, The Star and The New Straits Times called him the "RM3.5 million man". The novel was longlisted for the 2005Man Booker Prize and won the 2005Whitbread Book Awards First Novel Award as well as the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel (Asia Pacific region). It also made it to the long-list of the world's prestigious 2007 International Impac Dublin Award and the Guardian First Book Prize. It has thus far been translated into seventeen languages. Aw cites his literary influences asJoseph Conrad ,Vladimir Nabokov ,Anthony Burgess ,William Faulkner andGustav Flaubert .His second novel, titled "
Map of the Invisible World ", is due for release in April 2009.Miscellaneous
Based on royalties as well as prizes, Aw is the most successful Malaysian writer of recent years. Following the announcement of the Booker longlist, the Whitbread Award and his Commonwealth Writers' Prize award, he became a celebrity in Malaysia and Singapore, and is now one of the most respected literary figures in Southeast Asia.
External links
* [http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Resources/extracts/ex_ch_harmony_silk_factory_aw.pdf The first chapter of The Harmony Silk Factory in PDF file]
* [http://www.literaturfestival.com/bios1_3_6_1223.html Biography from the international literature festival berlin]
* [http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Article_3c8c5f9d-cb73c03a-6279d000-4b697de3 Cover Story: Tash for Cash in TheEdgeDaily.com]
* [http://www.whitbread-bookawards.co.uk/index.cfm?page=24&id=240&bid=256 Whitbread Book Awards]
* [http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2005/6/12/features/11178541&sec=features The man behind the author, an interview on a Malaysian website]
* [http://www.granta.com/Magazine/100/To-the-City 'To the City', a short story in Granta Magazine website]
* [http://allmalaysia.info/news/story.asp?file=/2005/6/12/people/11177729&sec=mi_people Staying true to his beliefs]
* [http://tash-aw.com Tash Aw official website]
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