Oonya Kempadoo

Oonya photo by Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe 2Oonya Kempadoo, grew up in Guyana and has worked and lived in various Caribbean islands and resides in Grenada for the last 15 years. Her first novel, Buxton Spice (1998), was long-listed for the Orange Prize and translated into six languages. Her second novel Tide Running won a Casa De Las Americas 2002 prize, was also well received on both sides of the Atlantic and Kempadoo was named a “Great Talent for the 21st Century” by the Orange Prize judges. Oonya’s latest novel, All Decent Animals, published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux, USA May 2013, was listed #6 on Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine summer reads. She is currently completing a narrative of local perspectives of sexual abuse and developing a speculative fiction, multi-media, eco-social project. She has worked in the Caribbean region as a consultant and social development researcher and was a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence and Creative Writing instructor for academic year 2013-2014, with two community colleges in Connecticut, USA.  Oonya is the director and a co-founder of a community library and literacy center in St George’s, Grenada.