Maya Jaggi | |
|---|---|
| Born | London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford;London School of Economics |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, broadcaster, literary critic and editor |
| Relatives | Madhur Jaffrey (aunt) |
| Awards | National Newspaper Writer of the Year,RIMA (1996; 1998); Feature writer of the year,EMMA Awards (1998; 1999); Honorary doctorate,Open University (2012) |
Maya JaggiFRSL is a British writer, literary critic, editor and cultural journalist.[1][2] In the words of theOpen University, from which Jaggi received an honorary doctorate in 2012, she "has had a transformative influence in the last 25 years in extending the map of international writing today".[1] Jaggi has been a contributor to a wide range of publications includingThe Guardian,Financial Times,The Independent,The Literary Review,The Times Literary Supplement,The New York Review of Books,The Wall Street Journal,The Economist,New Statesman,Wasafiri,Index on Censorship, andNewsweek, and is particularly known for her profiles of writers, artists, film-makers, musicians and others.[3] She is also a broadcaster and presenter on radio and television. Jaggi is the niece of actor and food writerMadhur Jaffrey.[4][5]
Born in London, UK,[6] where her parents settled in 1960 after migrating fromIndia,[4][7] Maya Jaggi was educated atOxford University and theLondon School of Economics.[8]
Her first job, in the 1980s, was as Literary Editor of the journalThird World Quarterly,[9] where she "created a literature section that embraced Latin America as part of the global South", commissioning and publishing work by and about major writers.[10][11] In the late 1990s, she joined the staff ofThe Guardian, working on the foreign news desk while also writing for the paper's cultural pages.[10]
Since 2000, Jaggi has built a freelance career reporting on arts and culture from five continents[2] and has earned acclaim for her long-form arts profiles, written particularly for theGuardian Review[8] up until 2015.[12] In addition, she has contributed articles and reviews to a wide range of publications, among themThe Financial Times,The Independent,The Economist,The Times Literary Supplement,The Observer,The Sunday Times, theDaily Telegraph,Index on Censorship, theLiterary Review, theEvening Standard,Newsweek, theWall Street Journal,New York Review of Books,New Statesman,Bookforum,Wasafiri magazine andWords Without Borders.
In September 2004, she was one of 50 Black and Asian writers celebrated for their contribution to the canon of contemporary British literature in a photograph at theBritish Library entitled "A Great Day".[13][14][15]
She has received various awards over the years and in 2012 her work was recognised with an honorary doctorate from the Open University,[16] the citation noting that Jaggi "occupies a unique place in British journalism, and has had a transformative influence in the last 25 years in extending the map of international writing today."[1]
In 2014, she was aDAAD Arts and Media fellow in Berlin.[17] She has also been an EU Senior Expert in Cultural Journalism in post-Soviet Europe.[18][19]
She has interviewed a dozen Nobel Prize-winners for literature, includingGunter Grass,Mario Vargas Llosa,Jose Saramago,Toni Morrison,Derek Walcott,V. S. Naipaul,Kenzaburō Ōe, andOrhan Pamuk (before he won the prize),[1] as well as other celebrated authors and scholars includingChinua Achebe,Umberto Eco,Tom Stoppard,W. G. Sebald,James Kelman,Alice Walker,Nuruddin Farah,Mahmoud Darwish,Hanan al-Shaykh,Elias Khoury,Alaa al-Aswany,Tahar Ben Jelloun,Amin Maalouf,Isabel Allende,Henry Louis Gates Jr,Eric Hobsbawm,George Steiner,Jeanette Winterson,Caryl Phillips,Kazuo Ishiguro,Arundhati Roy,Walter Mosley,Terry McMillan,Amy Tan,Linton Kwesi Johnson,Aminatta Forna,Nadeem Aslam,Romesh Gunesekera,Junot Díaz andEdward Said (the latter praising her profile of him as "in a class of its own"),[1][20] and practitioners of diverse art forms, such as filmmakerCosta Gavras, musicianAbdullah Ibrahim, painterFrank Bowling, dancerCarlos Acosta, andOprah Winfrey.
Several of Jaggi's literary profiles have appeared in such collections asLives and Works (2002),Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk (ed.Susheila Nasta, 2004) andWomen of the Revolution: Forty Years of Feminism (ed.Kira Cochrane, 2010). The 2001Penguin Modern Classics edition of Chinua Achebe'sAnthills of the Savannah has an introduction by Jaggi.[9][21]
Her work as a broadcaster encompasses contributions to such BBC radio programmes asThe Strand,[22]Front Row,Night Waves,Off the Page,Any Questions? andThe World Tonight,[9][23] and she was writer-presenter of the television documentaryIsabel Allende: The Art of Reinvention (BBC Four, 2003).[24] In 2009, Jaggi's interview with cultural theoristStuart Hall was the subject of a 258-minute film byMike Dibb entitledPersonally Speaking: A Long Conversation with Stuart Hall.[25][26]
Jaggi has served as an adviser to theLondon Arts Board and theBritish Council, an executive member ofEnglish PEN[23] and as a judge for numerous literary awards: theOrange Prize, theDavid Cohen Prize, theCommonwealth Writers' Prize,[27] theGuardian Fiction Prize, theSaif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation,[28] theAmnesty International UK Media Awards,[29] theHarvill Secker Young Translators' Prize,[30] theWarwick Prize for Writing,[31] theWasafiri New Writing Prize,[32] theMan Asian Literary Prize,[33][34] theCaine Prize for African Writing,[35] theInternational Dublin Literary Award,[36] theOCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature,[37] and others.[38]
She participates regularly in literary festivals,[10][39][40] presents seminars and live events,[41][42][43] and is a board member ofWasafiri magazine and a patron of theSI Leeds Literary Prize.[44] She is also a member of theFolio Prize Academy.[45]
In April 2016, she was Artistic Director of the project "Where Europe Meets Asia: Georgia 25", a cultural week marking the 25 years sinceGeorgia gained independence from theSoviet Union.[46] Talks, films and other events took place in London at Asia House[47] and elsewhere, with participants includingBoris Akunin,Boyd Tonkin,Donald Rayfield,Aka Morchiladze,Dato Turashvili,Zurab Karumidze,Claire Armitstead,Maureen Freely, and others.[48][49]
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