Anjan Sundaram

Early life and education

Sundaram was born in Ranchi, India, and grew up between India and Dubai. He studied at Rishi Valley School in India, and Dubai Gem Private School in Dubai. After enrolling in the engineering programme at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, he moved to the United States and graduated from Yale University in 2005. Sundaram earned a master's degree in mathematics as an undergraduate at Yale studying abstract algebra under the legendary mathematician Serge Lang.

Journalism

Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship was published in January 2016 to strong critical acclaim, with the Guardian calling it a "required reading...a superb exposé of dictatorship" and the Washington Post describing it as "courageous and heartfelt." Sundaram's first book Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo earned him comparisons to Ryszard Kapuściński and V. S. Naipaul. Stringer was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, who called the book "remarkable". Sundaram has reported from central Africa since 2005 for magazines such as Foreign Policy and Granta, in particular on the conflicts in Congo and the Central African Republic and on Rwanda. A feature of his writing is his immersion in a place and his portrayals of what it feels like to be there. In 2015 Sundaram's reporting on the Central African Republic won a Frontline Club Award. He was awarded a Reuters journalism prize in 2006 for his reporting from Congo.