Kincaid, Jamaica

Jamaica Kincaid was born in Antigua in 1949, and at 16 moved to America, where she became an au pair; after some schooling and work on publications such as Ingenue and the Village Voice, she was hired at The New Yorker. It wasn't until 1983, however, with the publication of At the Bottom of the River, that Kincaid became a recognized and important voice in America. She is a prolific writer who is still publishing works on Caribbean and other themes from her home in Vermont. The mother-daughter conflict is central in much of her writing.

Kincaid has published poetry and short stories, written on travel, and even edited an essay collection on gardening, but she is best known for her novels. Her fiction often takes ...