Ami Rao
Ami Rao is the author of David and Ameena (2021) and Almost (2022).
Ami is a British-American writer who was born in Calcutta, India and has lived and worked in New York City, London, Paris, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ami has a BA in English Literature and Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and was most recently a banking professional in the City of London. When she is not reading, writing, cooking, eating, sailing or dancing, she can be found listening to jazz, her ‘one great unrequited love’. She also mentors girls of colour, with a keen emphasis on the merits of reading and education.
She co-wrote a sports memoir, Centaur, which was published in 2018. The book won the General Outstanding Sports Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2017.
A short Q&A with Ami Rao can be read below:
How did you start writing?
I think it was a habit that just emerged organically out of compulsively reading… Perhaps this is true of many writers, but if you’re a big reader, then at some point there is this internal shift, and you feel the need to produce the kind of thing you love reading.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I wanted to be a jazz singer. I’ll stop there!
What’s your favourite book and who is your favourite author?
Favourite author: Virginia Woolf, because she loved character and she loved language and that’s all that really matters to me (but I pick one of many, with hesitation).
Favourite work: (with no hesitation) Anna Karenina.
Read our full interview with Ami Rao about David and Ameena here, and read an exclusive extract of Almost here.