29 May at 4pm
Reading from her work in progress

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Smith has been attracting attention ever since she sold her first novel-in-progress for a six-figure sum while she was still at university. Some doubted whether the finished book could match the hype, but White Teeth, a high-spirited chronicle of two families from multi-ethnic North London, ravished critics and the public. It was made into a successful television series and won Smith many prizes – though, controversially, the heavyweight British awards eluded her.

Born in 1975 to a Jamaican mother and an English father, Smith is still too young to have a long CV. After completing her successful follow-up novel, The Autograph Man, which also dealt with ethnic identity, she went to Harvard to do post-graduate study. She has collaborated with leading young American writers and is now working on a new novel.

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Zadie Smith