SAFIYA SINCLAIR was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. The memoir was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction and included on over 17 Best Books of 2023 lists, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and TIME Magazine. It was named one of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023. Sinclair is also known for her poetry collection Cannibal, which garnered several awards, including the Whiting Award and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize, among other honors from esteemed institutions. Sinclair’s work has been featured in prominent publications, including The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. She is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at Arizona State University

WHY THEY’RE JOINING US

The best memoirs transport you fully into the head, heart, and soul of the writer and their experiences. So it is with How to Say Babylon, the lyrical and searing memoir by award-winning poet Safiya Sinclair. Winner of the National Book Critics Award, the book recounts her Jamaican childhood and her efforts to escape the patriarchal control of her strict Rastafarian father. The language, the island weather, her father’s countenance, and her struggle to be free—all will stay with you long after you stop reading.

Photo credit – Beowulf Sheehan