Jamaica Kincaid Biography

Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener. Born in St. John's, Antigua, she now lives in North Bennington, Vermont. She is also a professor of African American studies at Harvard University. She has penned a number of critically acclaimed novels.

Writer
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener. Born in St. John's, Antigua, she now lives in North Bennington, Vermont. She is a professor of African American studies in residence at Harvard University and writes about gardening.

Kincaid has won numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Hadada Award, from The Paris Review. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her works have been recognized with the Lannan Literary Award for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dan David Prize for literature, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

In 1979, Kincaid married composer Allen Shawn, a Bennington College professor. He was the son of a longtime editor at The New Yorker and the brother of actor Wallace Shawn. They divorced in 2002. Kincaid has two children, Harold and Annie. Harold Kincaid is a musician, music producer, and songwriter, and Annie Kincaid has studied photography.

Gardener
Jamaica Kincaid was a natural gardener and a keen observer of plant life. At a young age, she started her own front lawn garden in Vermont, planting seeds of the flowers she liked. The result was a garden that flourished over a number of years. This was her first successful gardening experience, and she subsequently went on to create her own gardens in other parts of the country.

Born in 1949 in Antigua, Kincaid moved to New York at a young age, where she studied photography and attended Franconia College. In 1973, she changed her name from Elaine Potter Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid. This change was made so she could remain anonymous in the writing she did. She was a staff writer for the New Yorker from 1974 to 1996. She is also the author of several novels, including The Gardener and the Housekeeper.

Essayist
Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener, Jamaica Kincaid lives in North Bennington, Vermont. Born in St. John's, Antigua, Kincaid was raised in the Caribbean nation and is a Harvard University Professor of African American Studies in Residence. Her writings address issues of race, gender, and class, and are infused with a lyricism that is both accessible and uplifting.

Kincaid was born in Antigua, where she spent her formative years living with her mother and stepfather. Despite the limited education that she had access to, she wished to study English literature and eventually become a teacher or librarian. Fortunately, she was able to acquire a good background in English literature and studied Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Keats, and the King James Bible. She also enjoyed the works of Charlotte Bronte, including Jane Eyre.

Gardener writer
Antiguan-American Jamaica Kincaid is a writer, essayist, and gardener. Her books include five novels and several works of nonfiction. She has also published many uncollected stories and essays. She lives in North Bennington, Vermont, during the summer months, and teaches at Harvard during the academic year.

Kincaid has written several books about gardening and writing about nature. Her first novel, A Small Place, examines the effects of colonialism in the Caribbean island of Antigua, and her second book, Among Flowers, is a memoir about a seed-gathering trek. She has received many awards for her writing, including the Morton DauwenZabel Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In honor of Women's History Month, NYBG is highlighting the works of women who have made a difference in the world of plants and gardens. Jamaica Kincaid is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer who focuses on race and colonialism in her writing. Kincaid's books explore the tensions between personal memory and gardening, and interweave themes of colonialism and race.

Novelist
Jamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, and gardener. Born in St. John's, Antigua, she currently resides in North Bennington, Vermont, and is a professor of African American studies at Harvard University.

Born and raised in the Caribbean, Kincaid studied photography in New York and attended Franconia College in New Hampshire. She was a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1974 to 1996. Her first novel, Annie John, was published in 1985, and has since been translated into thirteen languages. She has also published short stories and essays that have been praised by critics.

Kincaid's writing is evocative and sensuous, with meanings arising from the hypnotic litany of words. In her first four novels, repetition, echoes, and refrains dominate the narrative. Her most recent novel, The Other Girl, is a work of direct prose. Her previous two novels, At the Bottom of the River and Annie John, are written in narrative voice.