Marlon James (novelist)

Marlon James
Marlon James at the 2014 Texas Book Festival
Born	(1970-11-24) 24 November 1970
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Jamaican
Alma mater	University of the West Indies, Wilkes University
Period	2002–present
Notable works	A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James (born 24 November 1970)^[1] is a Jamaican writer. He has published three novels: John Crow's Devil (2005), The Book of Night Women (2009), and A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize. Now living in Minneapolis, James teaches literature at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.^[2][3]

Early life

James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to parents who were both in the Jamaican police: his mother (who gave him his first prose book, a collection of stories by O. Henry) became a detective and his father (from whom James took a love of Shakespeare and Coleridge) a lawyer.^[4][5] James is a 1991 graduate of the University of the West Indies, where he read Language and Literature. He received a master's degree in creative writing from Wilkes University (2006).^[6]

Career

James has taught English and creative writing at Macalester College since 2007.^[7][8] His first novel, John Crow's Devil – which was rejected 70 times before being accepted for publication^[9] – tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957.^[10] His second novel, The Book of Night Women, is about a slave woman's revolt in a Jamaican plantation in the early 19th century.^[11] His most recent novel, 2014's A Brief History of Seven Killings, explores several decades of Jamaican history and political instability through the perspectives of many narrators. It won the fiction category of the 2015 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature^[12] and the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, having been the first book by a Jamaican author ever to be shortlisted.^[13][14] He is the second Caribbean winner of the prize, following Trinidad-born V. S. Naipaul who won in 1971.^[15] James has indicated his next work will be a fantasy novel, titled Black Leopard, Red Wolf.^[16] It will be the first in a series.

Works

• John Crow's Devil (2005)
• The Book of Night Women (2009)
• A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014)

Awards and recognition

• 2009 – National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Book of Night Women^[17]
• 2010 – Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Fiction) for The Book of Night Women^[18]
• 2010 – Minnesota Book Award (Novel & Short Story) for The Book of Night Women^[19]
• 2013 – Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica^[20]
• 2014 – National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for A Brief History of Seven Killings^[21]
• 2015 – Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction for A Brief History of Seven Killings^[22]
• 2015 – OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Fiction category winner), for A Brief History of Seven Killings^[23]
• 2015 – Man Booker Prize for Fiction for A Brief History of Seven Killings^{[24][25][26][27]}
• 2015 – Green Carnation Prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings^[28]

References

Further reading

• Gifford, Sheryl. "(Re)Making Men, Representing the Caribbean Nation: Individuation in the Works of Fred D’Aguiar, Robert Antoni, and Marlon James." Diss. Florida Atlantic University, 2013. Print.
• Machado Sáez, Elena (2015), "Writing the Reader: Literacy and Contradictory Pedagogies in Julia Alvarez, Michelle Cliff, and Marlon James", Market Aesthetics: The Purchase of the Past in Caribbean Diasporic Fiction, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, ISBN 978-0-8139-3705-2 .
• Polk, James. "Spiritual Combat". Review of John Crow's Devil, by Marlon James. The New York Times, 13 November 2005: 54.
• Thomson, Ian. "God 'and Rum' on the Rocks". Review of John Crow’s Devil, by Marlon James. The Independent, 28 October 2005: 21.

External links

• Media related to Marlon James (novelist) at Wikimedia Commons