Author and poet Jamaica Kincaid is scheduled to speak at Bridges Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1. The event, An Evening with Jamaica Kincaid, is co-sponsored by The Claremont Colleges. Kincaid's visit will include readings from some of her writings, as well as a question and answer period and book signing.
Born Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949 in Antigua, West Indies, and raised in poverty, Kincaid fled the island for New York City at age 17, where she supported herself through domestic work. Her first writing experience involved a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. Through her writing, she met George W.S. Trow, a writer for The New Yorker, who made Kincaid the focus of several of his Talk of the Town pieces. The result led to Kincaid's work as a regular contributor to The New Yorker for nearly two decades, while launching a successful career in fiction, essays and novels, including Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, and My Brother.
Kincaid's awards and honors over the years include the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a Lila Wallce-Reader's Digest Fund writer's award. My Brother, a memoir of her relationship with her brother who died of AIDS, was nominated for the National Book Award.
Tickets are free to Claremont McKenna College students, staff, and faculty through Aug. 31, and available through the Dean of Students office in Heggblade Center (one ticket per ID; first-year students are eligible for preferred seating). Tickets will go on sale to the public thereafter, for $5 per person.
For more information, contact the Dean of Students Office: 909-621-8114, or Bridges Auditorium, 909-621-8032.