Background
Ganieva was born in Moscow in an Avar family but moved with her family to Dagestan, where she lived in Gunib and later attended school in Makhachkala.
Ganieva was born in Moscow in an Avar family but moved with her family to Dagestan, where she lived in Gunib and later attended school in Makhachkala.
In 2002 she moved back to Moscow and graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
She works as a literary critic for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily. The identity of the author, who published it pseudonymously, was only discovered at the award ceremony. The characters use the "Dagestani Russian", a pidgin version of Russian, to communicate, the first instance when this was presented in a literary work.
In 2012, Ganieva published her second novel, Holiday Mountain, also set in Dagestan.
In 2014, it was translated to German. In 2015 the Italian and the English translations came out.
The most recent one published by the Deep Vellum Publishing House (United States of America) is called "The Mountain And The Wall" (Russian: Праздничная гора). Ganieva spoke about the book to the audience of the London bureau of the Voice Of Russia radio
In April 2015 her new novel "The Bride And The Bridegroom" was released in Russia and is already listed for the major literary awards.
She also published short stories and fairy tales.
In June 2015 Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most talented and influential young people living in Moscow. She is number 9 on the list.