Oonya Kempadoo is a writer who was born in Sussex, England, in 1966 of Guyanese parents.[1] She was brought up in Guyana and has studied art in Amsterdam. She has also lived in Trinidad, St. Lucia, and Tobago, and now lives in Grenada.
Her first novel, Buxton Spice, was published 1998. The New York Times described it as "superb, and superbly written".[2] Her second book, Tide Running (Picador, 2001), set in Plymouth, Tobago, is the story of young brothers Cliff and Ossie.[3]
Both of her books were nominated for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards, the first in 2000 and the second in 2003.[4]
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.