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Oonya Kempadoo
British-Guyanese novelist (born 1966) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Oonya Kempadoo (born 1966) is a novelist who was born in the United Kingdom of Guyanese parentage, her father being the writer Peter Kempadoo.[1] She is the author of four well received novels: Buxton Spice (1998); Tide Running (2001); All Decent Animals (2013); and Naniki (2024). She is a winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize.
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Born in Sussex, England, "of mixed Indian, African, Scottish, and Amerindian descent", Oonya Kempadoo was brought up in Guyana from the age of five.[2] She has studied art in Amsterdam, and has also lived in Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Tobago.[3] She now lives in St. George's, Grenada.[4][5]
Kempadoo began writing seriously in 1997[3] and her first novel, Buxton Spice, a semi-autobiographical rural coming-of-age story,[2] was published 1998. The New York Times described it as "superb, and superbly written".[6] Her second book, Tide Running (Picador, 2001), set in Plymouth, Tobago, is the story of young brothers Cliff and Ossie.[7] Tide Running won the Casa de las Américas Prize for best English or Creole novel.[4]
Both of these books were nominated for International Dublin Literary Awards, the first in 2000 and the second in 2003.[8]
In 2011, Kempadoo participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA.[9]
She was named a Great Talent for the Twenty-First Century by the Orange Prize judges and is a winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize.[10]
Her third novel All Decent Animals (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013) was recommended on Oprah's 2013 Summer Reading List by Karen Russell, who said: "How am I only now finding out about this writer? It's as if she's inventing her own language, which is incantatory, dense, and lush. The authority and blood pulse of it seduced me."[11]
Naniki was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2024 Governor General's Awards.[12]
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Bibliography
- Buxton Spice. W&N, 1998. ISBN 9781861591449 paperback 1st
- Tide Running. Picador, 2001; ISBN 9780330482523 hardcover
- All Decent Animals. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013; ISBN 9780374299712 hardcover 1st
- Naniki. Rare Machines, 2024. ISBN 9781459751491 paperback 1st
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