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Jamaica Kincaid

ジャマイカ・キンケイド

Jamaica Kincaid

Pen Names: Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson（Birth name. Changed to "Jamaica Kincaid" in 1973 for publishing and personal reasons）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1949-05-25 （St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda）
Nationality
Antigua and Barbuda, United States
Languages
English
Religion
Judaism Baptized in 2005
Residence History
St. John's, Antigua → Scarsdale, New York → New York City, New York → North Bennington, Vermont → Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University)

Career

Occupations
novelist, essayist, gardener, garden writer, professor (emerita)
Active Years
1974-
Affiliations
Harvard University (Professor in Residence, Emerita), The New Yorker (former staff writer/columnist)
Memberships
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow), Royal Society of Literature (International Writer)
Influenced By
Michael Arlen, George W. S. Trow
Influenced
Contemporary Caribbean writers (general influence), Subsequent generations of Black American writers (influence)
Nominations
PEN/Faulkner Award (shortlisted for At the Bottom of the River), PEN/Faulkner Award (shortlisted for The Autobiography of My Mother)

Education

Franconia College
Period: 1969–1970
Country: United States
Attended on a full scholarship but dropped out after one year
Community college (evening classes)
Period: 1960年代（夜間履修）
Country: United States
Enrolled in evening classes while working as an au pair

Awards

Morton Dauwen Zabel Award
1984
Work: At the Bottom of the River
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship (Fiction)
1985
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
1997
Work: The Autobiography of My Mother
Organization: Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Result: 受賞
Prix Femina étranger
2000
Work: My Brother
Organization: Prix Femina
Result: 受賞
Dan David Prize (Literature)
2017
Organization: Dan David Prize
Result: 受賞
The Paris Review Hadada Prize (lifetime achievement)
2022
Organization: The Paris Review
Result: 受賞
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow)
2009
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Result: 選出/会員名誉

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Annie John

1985 Novel (coming-of-age) 160 pages

Follows Annie, a girl from Antigua, as she grows up and navigates complex feelings toward her mother; contains strong autobiographical elements.

mother-daughter relationshipsadolescence/coming-of-agecolonial legacy
Adaptations
  • [use in film/documentary] Life and Debt (excerpts used) / Stephanie Black (2001)

A Small Place

1988 Non-fiction / Essay 96 pages

A polemical essay critiquing tourism and colonial legacy in Antigua, addressing the reader directly about injustice and exploitation.

colonialismcritique of tourismneocolonialismreappraisal of national history
Adaptations
  • [documentary (narration/excerpts)] Life and Debt / Stephanie Black (2001)

Lucy

1990 Novel 208 pages

A first-person novel following Lucy, a young woman from Antigua living in the U.S., exploring identity, belonging, and relationships.

migration and identityestrangement from familyindependence

The Autobiography of My Mother

1996 Novel 160 pages

A layered novel told from the perspective of a fictional woman, dealing with motherhood, loss, and colonial history.

loss and memorycolonial legacyfemale subjectivity

Mr. Potter

2002 Novel 208 pages

Explores Antigua's society and its entanglement with American capitalism, intertwining personal and national histories.

nation and individualeconomic and social power structures

See Now Then

2013 Novel 224 pages

A later novel engaging with time and memory, reconstructing private experience and recollection.

timememorypersonal reconstruction

Bibliography

  • At the Bottom of the River
  • Annie John
  • A Small Place
  • Lucy
  • The Autobiography of My Mother
  • Mr. Potter
  • See Now Then
  • My Brother
  • Talk Stories
  • Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas

Adaptations

  • Excerpts from A Small Place were used in the documentary Life and Debt (dir. Stephanie Black, 2001)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
lyrical yet concise prose with restrained anger and sharp observationnarrative that privileges impression and feeling over plot, often with autobiographical resonance
Recurring Motifs
mother-daughter relationshipscolonialism and its legacygardens and plantsmemory and lossimmigrant experiences

Legacy

A major figure in Caribbean and postcolonial literature, widely praised for incisive treatments of mother-daughter dynamics and colonial legacies. Critical responses have been mixed, but her stylistic distinctiveness and influence are widely recognized.

Museums

  • Houghton Library, Harvard College Library Cambridge, Massachusetts (Harvard University)

Academic Societies

  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Royal Society of Literature

Archives

  • Jamaica Kincaid Papers (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library)

In Popular Culture

  • Her work has been referenced in documentary film (excerpts used in Life and Debt, 2001) and in discussions of postcolonial critique in popular media.

Quotes

  • "Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn't admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence."
    Source: Interview with Jamaica Kincaid, The Missouri Review (2002)

Trivia

  • Adopted the name Jamaica Kincaid in 1973 for her writing career.
  • Converted to Judaism in 2005.
  • Was a staff writer for The New Yorker for about 20 years.
  • Married composer Allen Shawn in 1979; divorced in 2002; has two children.