Although out of print for the most part, Kil-
lens’s work has been translated into Italian, Span-
ish, French, Chinese, Russian, and German. His
body of work, influence as a teacher and mentor,
and communal political focus make Killens a vital,
if underappreciated, proponent of African-Ameri-
can culture. Killens died of cancer on October 27,
1987, in Brooklyn, New York.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gilyard, Keith. Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric and
Poetics of John Oliver Killens. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press, 2003.
Rivera, Louis Reyes. “John Oliver Killens: Lest We
Forget.” In New Rain. Vol. 9: Our Fathers/Our-
selves. Bronx: Blind Beggar Press, 1999.
Ray Black
Kincaid, Jamaica (1949– )
Recognized as one of the most innovative and
provocative Caribbean-American writers of
the late 20th century, Jamaica Kincaid was born
Elaine Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949, in An-
tigua, British West Indies. For the first nine years
of her life, Kincaid lived in Saint John’s, the capi-
tal of her Caribbean homeland, with her aging
father and his young wife, Annie Richards. Kin-
caid left Antigua for New York when she was 16
years old to work as an au pair and study nurs-
ing—an experience that is the basis of her second
novel, Lucy (1990). Rather than pursuing nursing,
though, Kincaid studied photography and wrote
for various magazines, including a breakthrough
interview with Gloria Steinem for the magazine
Ingénue. Eventually Kincaid graduated to writing
for The New Yorker, where she published sections
of At the Bottom of the River and Annie John. Kin-
caid changed her name when she began publish-
ing her work in America.
Kincaid immediately won recognition as an
important new voice in American fiction when
she published At the Bottom of the River (1983), a
collection of short stories, dreams, and reflections.
It won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the
American Academy and Institute of Letters and
Arts in 1983. Although critics found the book
obscure, others praised its poetic explorations of
the themes of mother-daughter relationships and
ordinary life. These two themes are also chroni-
cled in Kincaid’s first novel, Annie John, which re-
counts the struggles of a young girl who becomes
progressively estranged from her mother and
is often assumed to be autobiographical. When
asked in a 1985 interview about the similarities
between her own life and that of the protagonist
in Annie John, Kincaid responded, “The feelings
are autobiographical, yes. I didn’t want to say it
was autobiographical because I felt that would be
somehow admitting something about myself, but
it is, and so that’s that” (quoted in Smith, 806).
In books about Antigua, her Caribbean island
homeland, Kincaid employs a highly poetic liter-
ary style. Her work is celebrated for its rhythms
and imagery, as well as its elliptical narration
and strong characterizations. Kincaid’s work ex-
plores issues both grand and personal: the nature
of individual consciousness, the pain of family
relationships, the nearness of history and the
devastation of cultural domination. CALL AND
RESPONSE, an anthology of African-American lit-
erary tradition, identifies Jamaica Kincaid as one
of the major emerging voices of the new wave of
black literary culture.
Kincaid’s third published book, A Small Place,
is perhaps her most critical work. An essay ad-
dressed to a tourist from North America or Eu-
rope traveling in Antigua, A Small Place examines
Antigua’s postcolonial culture. It employs stark
prose throughout that exposes the destructive ef-
fects of colonialism. Kincaid’s narration is doubt-
lessly informed by her own status as an exile.
While some reviewers were upset by its rage, oth-
ers, especially in Europe, praised its powerful cri-
tique of imperialism.
Kincaid followed up A Small Place with her
fourth novel, Lucy (1990). This tale, in many
ways, is complementary to her first novel. Lucy is a
young Antiguan woman who comes to New York
to work as an au pair for a young white couple
and feels estranged from the mother she left be-302 Kincaid, Jamaica