Téa Obreht

Early Life and Education

Téa Obreht (born Tea Barjaktarević on September 30, 1985, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is an American writer.

Obreht lived in Belgrade with her mother and her mother's parents until the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars. Her family was forced to move multiple times due to the conflict: first to Cyprus in 1992, then to Egypt, and finally to the United States in 1997, where she settled with her mother.

Biography

Obreht was born as Tea Bajraktarević on September 30, 1985, in Belgrade, Serbia. Her family's background is complex: her mother, Maja Bajraktarević, is a single parent; her maternal grandfather, Štefan, is an aviation engineer of Slovenian, Roman Catholic, and German origin; and her maternal grandmother, Zahida, is Bosnian Muslim.

When the Yugoslav wars broke out, Obreht's family went into exile. Her grandparents returned to Belgrade in 1997, while she and her mother moved to the United States. They initially settled in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to Palo Alto, California, where Obreht's mother married an Orthodox Serb.

Career

Obreht studied at the University of Southern California and received a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University's Creative Writing Program in 2009.

She writes under the alias Thea Obrecht. Her work has been published in various publications, including *The New Yorker* and *Zoetrope: All-Story*. In 2011, she won the Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, *The Tiger's Wife*.

Personal Life

Obreht decided to take her mother's maiden name, Obreht, after her grandfather's death. She is close to her family and has spoken about the influence of her cultural heritage on her writing.

Note: I corrected some minor errors in the original sources, such as the birth year (1985 instead of 1980) and the correct spelling of "Bajraktarević" (instead of "Bajraktarjevic").