Kia Abdullah

Kia Abdullah (born 17 May 1982) is a British novelist and travel writer. She has written two novels: Life, Love and Assimilation (Adlibbed, 2006) and Child's Play (Revenge Ink, 2009) and has contributed to The Guardian, BBC, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides.

Abdullah is of Bangladeshi descent and was born and brought up in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in a family of eight children. Of her childhood, Abdullah has said: "[People] imagine poverty and misery, hardship and hand-me-downs. Of course I forfeited my fair share of material pleasures but a household of noise and colour is far better than possessions and privilege."

Abdullah was educated in England. She graduated from Queen Mary, University of London with a first class in BSc Computer Science. Her final year thesis was titled A Program Slicing Tool for Analysing Java Programs. Abdullah has an IQ of 150. She was a member of Mensa International, a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile of IQ, but left within a year of joining. Given her educational choices, Abdullah has described herself as a ‘nerd by default’.

In 2006, Abdullah published her first novel "Life, Love and Assimilation", which drew comparisons with Monica Ali's Brick Lane. The novel was also criticised by the Bangladeshi community, including members of Abdullah's own family for its candid portrayal of drugs and sex in east London.

In 2009, Abdullah published her second novel, a psychological crime thriller called "Child's Play". Unlike her first novel, her second enjoyed a warm reception from the community despite also including several scenes of a sexual nature.

During this time, Abdullah wrote on a range of topics from politics to relationships for the Guardian newspaper. She has spoken out on a range of subjects, from drug abuse and gender inequality to dealing with culture and identity as a British-Asian writer. Her article on honour killings was nominated for a Muslim Writers Award.

As Features Editor at Asian Woman magazine, Abdullah interviewed a range of prominent Asian actors and musicians including Jay Sean, Meera Syal, Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar. She is an occasional guest on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show as well as BBC Asian Network's DJ Nihal show.

Abdullah also works as a travel writer and has contributed to Lonely Planet and Rough Guides online and Asian Woman magazine in print. She is currently editor at outdoor travel site Atlas & Boots. She has spoken about her travels on television, radio, print and online.

Abdullah is in a relationship with British travel photographer Peter Watson. Between her travels for Atlas & Boots, she resides in east London.