Jamaica Kincaid to Speak at Grinnell College Commencement May 21
Jamaica Kincaid
Writer, novelist and professor Jamaica Kincaid skillfully and elegantly tempers the boundary between poetry and prose. With her books and novels, including Annie John, Lucy, At the Bottom of the River and A Small Place, she has carved out a unique and cherished place in the American literary landscape. Kincaid’s literary “voice” is deeply rooted in her experiences as a child in her native Antigua. Known for her candid and emotionally honest writing, in 1976 her work attracted the attention of William Shawn, former editor of The New Yorker, where she became a staff writer and featured columnist for nine years. Kincaid won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts for her first book, At the Bottom of the River. Her award-winning book, A Small Place, inspired the 2001 documentary, Life and Debt, about the impact globalization can have on a developing country. Her 2005 book Among Flowers: A Walk In The Himalayas chronicles her adventure into the mountains of Nepal with a group of botanists. Kincaid is at work on a new novel, See Now Then.
Kincaid began her academic career in 1991 at Harvard University holding joint appointments in the English and African-American Studies departments. Now a professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences April 29, 2009. She's also the 2010 recipient of the Clifton Fadiman Medal.
