Safiya Sinclair
JamaicaAbout
Safiya Sinclair is a Jamaican poet and memoirist whose writing explores identity, history, race, gender, and the legacies of colonialism. Born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica, she grew up in a strict Rastafari household, an experience that profoundly influenced her literary work. Sinclair earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of the West Indies and later completed an MFA at the University of Virginia. Her debut poetry collection, Cannibal (2016), received several awards, including the 2016 Whiting Award and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Poetry, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. Her acclaimed memoir, How to Say Babylon (2023), recounts her upbringing within a restrictive religious environment and her journey toward intellectual and personal independence. The book received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction in 2024. Through poetry and memoir, Sinclair examines how language and literature can help people confront inherited beliefs and reclaim their own stories.
