Photo: Sofie Sigrinn / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What draws me to Jamaica Kincaid is the sheer distance she traveled, from St. John's in tiny Antigua and Barbuda to the faculty at Harvard, carried entirely by the force of her prose. She writes about colonialism and the mother-daughter wound with a clarity that refuses to flinch, and the Guggenheim, the Prix Femina and the Dan David Prize all bear that out. But the detail I love most is her later life as a gardener in Vermont, turning even her flowerbeds into essays. For Kincaid, writing and living seem inseparable. Annie John and Lucy are books I keep meaning to sit with properly.
Overview
Jamaica Kincaid (; born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan–American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. Born in St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, she lives in North Bennington, Vermont, and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence Emerita at Harvard University.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Jamaica Kincaid
- Name (Japanese)
- ジャメイカ・キンケイド
- Reading
- じゃめいか・きんけいど
- Born
- May 25, 1949 (age 77)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Ox
- Origin
- St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- writer / novelist / playwright / university teacher / essayist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Franconia College
Awards & achievements
- 1985 Guggenheim Fellowship
- 2000 Prix Femina étranger
- 2017 Dan David Prize
- 2014 American Book Awards
- 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
- honorary doctor of Brandeis University
- 2004 Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Annie John | — | |
| Notable work | My Brother | — | |
| Notable work | Lucy | — |
6. Links
Writer — see all → · Novelist — see all →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.