HerStory: Zadie Smith

Authoress Zadie Smith came from, if nothing else, intellectually privileged beginnings. Born of Jamaica by way of northwest England, an inquisitive girl grew to be on of the most coveted wordsmiths of a generation. As a child she dreamt of becoming a musical movie actress alla Carmen Jones but, instead, tapped her way to Cambridge University to study English Literature. Here is where she started a short story that later expanded into what is now known as her first novel, White Teeth. This portrait of a multicultural life in London won her much acclaim as told through the lives of three ethnically diverse families. "I never attended a creative writing class in my life," she has cited. "I have a horror of them. Most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy. The best, the only real training you can get is from reading other people's books."

Zadie has set as a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and lives in London with her husband, poet NicK Laird, and daughter, Irie. Speaking In Tongues by Zadie Smith