Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in St John's, Antigua in May 1949.
In Antigua she received a British education and was frequently at the top of the class.
In early childhood, she was very close to her mother. As the only child, she lived with her mother and stepfather.
When she was nine years old her mother gave birth to three sons in quick succession and this altered their relationship for ever. Kincaid says that she was treated badly, that she was neglected.
"I don't know if having other children was the cause for our relationship changing - it might have changed as I entered adolescence, but her attention went elsewhere. And also our family money remained the same but there were more people to feed and to clothe and so everything got sort of shortened not only material things but emotional things, the good emotional things I got a short end of that. But then I got more of things I didn't have, like a certain kind of cruelty and neglect. In the end it didn't matter. When I was first a young person it did matter a lot becau •
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Born in Antigua in the West Indies, Jamaica Kincaid has cultivated a voice distinct from male Caribbean writers such as Derek Walcott and Caryl Phillips. Using life to inspire fiction, Kincaid often explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships, the effects and aftereffects of colonialism, and alienation more generally. Her work also transcends Afro-centric and feminist perspectives. Her deceptively simple prose is marked by poetic lyricism, vivid imagery, and nonlinear time.
On May 25, 1949, she was born as Elaine Potter Richardson in St. John's, Antigua, an island that would not gain full independence from British colonial rule until 1981. The young girl never knew her biological father, a taxi driver named Roderick Potter. Her mother, Annie Richardson Drew, and stepfather, David Drew, nurtured Elaine as their only child until she was nine. During that time, she was well educated under the British educational system and won a scholarship to the Princess Margaret School. When she was nine, her life
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Jamaica Kincaid
Antiguan-American writer (born 1949)
Jamaica Kincaid (; born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson on May 25, 1949)[1] is an Antiguan–American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. Born in St. John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, she now lives in North Bennington, Vermont, and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence, Emerita at Harvard University.[2]
Biography
Kincaid was born in St. John's on the island of Antigua, on 25 May 1949.[3] She grew up in relative poverty with her mother, a literate, cultured woman and homemaker, and her stepfather, a carpenter.[3][4][5][6] She was very close to her mother until her three brothers were born in quick succession, starting when Kincaid was nine years old. After her brothers' births, she resented her mother, who thereafter focused primarily on the brothers' needs. Kincaid later recalled,
Our family money remained the same, but there were more people to feed and to clothe, and so everything got