Téa Obreht (born Tea Bajraktarević; 30 September 1985) is an American novelist. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 for The Tiger's Wife, her debut novel.Hamilton, Ted (25 March 2009). "Student Artist Spotlight: Tea Bajraktarevic" (interview). Cornell Daily Sun. Archived 7 March 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
Biography Téa Obreht was born as Tea Bajraktarević in the autumn of 1985, in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia as the only child of a single mother, Maja, while her father, a Bosniak, was "never part of the picture." Because of her lack of a father figure, she was close to her maternal grandparents, especially to her grandfather Štefan, a Slovene of German origin, and to her grandmother, Zahida, a Bosniak.
After graduating from the University of Southern California, Obreht received a MFA in fiction from the creative writing program at Cornell University in 2009.
Obreht's work has appeared in The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, Harper's, The New York Times and The Guardian, and in story anthologies."20 Under 40 Q.&A.: Téa Obreht" (interview). The New Yorker. June 14, 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2011."Biography". Téa Obreht (teaobreht.com). Retrieved 28 March 2011.
Among many influences, Obreht has mentioned in press interviews the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, the Yugoslav Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Isak Dinesen, Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, and the children's writer Roald Dahl.Codinha, Cotton (20 July 2009). "I Dreamed of Africa" (interview). The Atlantic. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
Obreht is married to the Irish writer Dan Sheehan.
The Tiger's Wife
The Tiger's Wife was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2010."Tiger's wife". WorldCat. Retrieved 12 April 2014. "View all editions and formats" shows that others were published 2011 and later. It is a novel set in an unnamed Balkan country, in the present and half a century ago, and features a young doctor's relationship with her grandfather and the stories he tells her. These concern a "deathless man" who meets him several times in different places and never grows old, and a deaf-mute girl from his childhood village who befriends a tiger that escaped from a zoo. It was largely written while she was at Cornell,Flanagan, Mark. "Tea Obreht". Contemporary Literature. About.com. Retrieved 28 March 2011. and excerpted in The New Yorker in June 2009.Lee, Stephan (4 March 2011). "Téa Obreht, author of 'The Tiger's Wife', on craft, age, and early success" (interview). Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 28 March 2011. Asked to summarize it by a university journalist, Obreht replied, "It's a family saga that takes place in a fictionalized province of the Balkans. It's about a female narrator and her relationship to her grandfather, who's a doctor. It's a saga about doctors and their relationships to death throughout all these wars in the Balkans."
The Tiger's Wife won the British Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 (for 2010 publications). Obreht was the youngest winner of the annual prize (established 1996), which recognizes "excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world"."Téa Obreht wins 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction" (2011 archive, contemporary). Orange Prize for Fiction (orangeprize.co.uk). Archived 10 February 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014. Late in 2011 she was a finalist for that year's U.S. National Book Award for Fiction."National Book Awards – 2011". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 12 April 2014. Contemporary archive including video record of Obreht reading from The Tiger's Wife.
Inland Inland was published by Penguin Random House in 2019. It is set in the American West in the late 19th century.
The Morningside Obreht's third novel The Morningside was published in 2024.
Sunrise Sunrise, Obreht's fourth novel, was published August 11, 2026 by Penguin Random House.
Awards Year Title Award Category Result Ref.2011The Tiger's Wife Dylan Thomas Prize — Galaxy National Book Awards International Author National Book Award Fiction Orange Prize — Waterstones 11 — 2012 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction CBC Bookie Awards International Fiction Crawford Award — Indies Choice Book Awards Adult Debut 2020 Inland Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Dylan Thomas Prize — 2021 International Dublin Literary Award — Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize — 2024 The Morningside Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize — 2025 Climate Fiction Prize —
Bibliography
Novels
Short stories
Essays and reporting
Online version is titled "David Attenborough’s exploration of nature’s marvels and brutality".
References
External links
Téa Obreht official website Archive at The Atlantic
2011 radio interview (one hour) at The Bat Segundo Show Tea Obreht Reads From Her Novel, 'The Tiger's Wife', PBS NewsHour, 1 April 2011 2011 Orange Prize Winner, Orange Prize for Fiction, 8 June 2011
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