Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in St. John's, Antigua, in 1949, and grew up under British colonial schooling on the island. At seventeen she left for New York to work as an au pair, and took the name Jamaica Kincaid when she began publishing. Her early writing appeared in The New Yorker, where she later worked for many years as a staff writer. Her first book, At the Bottom of the River (1983), was followed by the novel Annie John (1985) and by Lucy (1990), My Brother (1997) and My Garden (Book) (1999). She has taught for many years at Harvard and lives in Vermont. The tradition and place she wrote from She writes from Antigua, from the mother she loved and fought, and from the education that taught her English literature as though it had nothing to do with her. Her later books take up gardening and travel in the same uncompromising voice, and her anger is part of her style rather than a subject she apologises for. Genres and style Fiction, memoir and essay. Her sentences are short and declarative, and she uses the second person to put the reader directly inside a scolding or a memory. She rarely explains a feeling; she states a fact and lets the temperature of the prose do the rest. Notable works At the Bottom of the River (1983); Annie John (1985); Lucy (1990); My Brother (1997); My Garden (Book) (1999); See Now Then (2013); and the short story 'Girl' (1978), which is often anthologised and taught. What her craft can teach yours Kincaid is a great teacher of form, especially the list. 'Girl' is a single unbroken paragraph of a mother's instructions to a daughter, and it tells you about love, duty, fear and the whole colonial expectation of a girl's life without one line of commentary. Read it to see how repetition and accumulation can do the work of a plot, and how an ending that stops mid-thought can be devastating. Experience Their Writing Her work remains in copyright, so we describe rather than quote: in 'Girl', the mother's commands run together with no room to reply, and the reader slowly realises that the daughter's voice is the whole silence in it. Nothing is explained and everything is present. What Makes This Writing Special? Kincaid's sentences are cool and exact, and she refuses to explain her world to anyone standing outside it. Repetition is her instrument: an item repeated becomes a rhythm, then a pressure, then a grief. The surface is calm and the undertow is fierce, which is why her short prose stays in the ear. Where to Read More At the Bottom of the River for the early short prose, and Annie John for the novelistic version of the same material; 'Girl' is included in standard anthologies.