Preti Taneja

Preti Taneja FRSL is a British writer, screenwriter and educator. She is currently professor of world literature and creative writing at Newcastle University. Her first novel, We That Are Young, won the Desmond Elliott Prize and was shortlisted for several awards, including the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Prix Jan Michalski, and the Shakti Bhatt Prize. In 2005, a film she co-wrote was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Taneja's second book, Aftermath, is an account of the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, and describes her knowledge of the victims, as well as her experience having previously taught the perpetrator of the attacks in a prison education programme. It won the Gordon Burn Prize for 2022.

Biography

Early years and education Taneja was born in the United Kingdom, daughter of pioneering Indian cookery writer and food entrepreneur Meera Taneja. and grew up in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, where she attended St Francis College,

She studied theology, religion, and philosophy along with Sanskrit at St. John's College, Cambridge University. She went on to complete two post-graduate qualifications - a P.G. Dip. in print journalism from City University, London, and an M.A. degree in creative writing from Royal Holloway University, London, before completing a doctorate in creative writing from Royal Holloway University. and is a contributing editor for The White Review and for the publisher And Other Stories. She is currently Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University. In 2013, she wrote and produced a feature film, Verity's Summer.

Writing Taneja published her first novel, We That Are Young, in 2017. The book was a re-imagining of Shakespeare's play King Lear, and was set in contemporary India. It won the Desmond Elliott Prize for best debut novel in 2018, the Eastern Eye Award for literature in 2019, and was nominated for several other literary prizes, including the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Prix Jan Michalski, the Jhalak Prize, the Shakti Bhatt Prize, and Republic of Consciousness Prize. Taneja researched the book in India, traveling to several locations including Kashmir. In 2019, Gaumont announced that they would be adapting We That Are Young for television.

Taneja's second book, Aftermath, deals with the circumstances of the 2019 London Bridge terror attack. The perpetrator of the attack, Usman Khan, had attended a creative writing course that Taneja had taught at HMP Whitemoor as part of a prison education programme called Learning Together, and the attack was conducted while Khan attended a Learning Together conference on licence. Although Taneja had been invited to attend the conference, she did not go, but personally knew one of the victims of the attack as her colleague in the education programme. 2018: Longlisted, Prix Jan Michalski – We That Are Young 2018: Shortlisted, Shakti Bhatt Prize – We That Are Young 2019: Winner, Eastern Eye Award for Literature – We That Are Young 2022: Winner, Gordon Burn Prize – Aftermath 2023: Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature