Tamta Melashvili: A New, Fearless Voice

Born in 1979 in Ambrolauri, the writer currently lives in Tbilisi and works as a researcher and teacher at Tbilisi State University. She is a feminist activist with a background in Gender Studies (Central European University, Budapest). Her short stories first appeared online on literary websites and were later included in various anthologies. In 2010, her debut Counting Out was published, quickly gaining success. The novel was acclaimed by the critics as the work of 'a new, highly distinctive voice' and received the Saba literary prize, the country’s top literary award, in 2011. Counting Out has now been translated into five languages. Melashvili is a bold and fearless voice in contemporary Georgian literature, who dares to search and discover the blind sides of a story in her narration.