1. Jamaica Kincaid (St. John’s, Antigua)

Contrary to what her name suggests, Jamaica Kincaid (born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson) was born in Antigua. At the tender age of sixteen, she was sent to live with a host family in New York where she worked as their household help, or their au pair.

After which she soon started writing for The New Yorker under the pseudonym Jamaica Kincaid. Kincaid is known for brazenness, her strong views on black feminism and her plethora of issues with European imperialism which is often reflected in her novels.

Her stance on these issues becomes most prevalent in her novel Lucy, although Kincaid claims that Lucy isn’t an autobiography, it is definitely comparable to her own life. Kincaid, a community college dropout, is teaching at Harvard these days.

2. V.S. Naipaul (Chaguanas, Trinidad & Tobago)

Trinidad & Tobago are twin islands located 10 degrees north of the equator. Though this island is small, it’s pride for its’ people happens to be immensely large and Nobel Laureate Sir Vidiadhar Surajprashad Naipaul (aka V.S. Naipaul) serves as clear evidence of that. Naipaul is of Indo-Caribbean descent, simply explained as people born in the Caribbean with East Indian ancestry.

His novels reflect the combination of Caribbean culture with Indian practices. Though he can be quite controversial when illustrating his Indian heritage, he definitely does an excellent job of depicting the identity crisis most Indians face growing up in the Caribbean.

His novel, A House For Mr. Biswas, shows us what most of us Indo-Caribbeans get wrong with practicing religion and culture in a poverty-stricken country. Naipaul currently resides in London.

3. Edwidge Danticat (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)

Perhaps one of the most underrated authors of the Caribbean is Edwidge Danticat. Emigrating to the United States at 12, she completed her education at Barnard College at Columbia University and Brown University simultaneously.

Danticat’s novel, The Farming of Bones, illustrates one of history’s deadliest and most overlooked genocides in the Caribbean on the island of Hispanola.

As most may know, Hispanola is the island that houses the Dominican Republic and Haiti. During the 1930s, distrust in Haitian natives living in the Dominican Republican began to escalate to the point where Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the murder of every Haitian in the Dominican Republic.

The determination of a Haitian would be their inability to pronounce the word ‘perejil’ (parsley) because the language barrier of Haitian French and Dominican Spanish, which alluded the name; Parsley Massacre.

Danticat intellectually uses a variety of biblical references, literary symbols, and reoccurring themes to delineate the horror of the Parsley Massacre. Danticat continues to advocate for Haiti and occasionally teaches at colleges across the United States.

4. Shani Mootoo (San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago)

Shani Mootoo was born to Trinidadian parents in Ireland who soon took her to San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago, where she was raised.

Mootoo’s literature has been a groundbreaking revolution in the Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ community. Her collection of short stories, Out on Main Street, consists of one particular example of dealing with an Indian-Trinidadian woman who is constantly rejected by the mainstream Indian community in Canada for her inability to connect with them.

This book definitely relates to the struggle any Indo-Caribbean has, especially with being labelled as “Indian, but not really.” Her novels, Cereus Blooms at Night and Valmiki’s Daughter, deal with sensitive issues such as sexual orientation, abuse, and gender fluidity within the Indo-Caribbean community, which are generally regarded as taboo topics. Mootoo currently lives in Ontario, Canada where she continues to write.

5. Reinaldo Arenas (Holguin Province, Cuba)

Born in 1943 during the dismantling of the Batista government in Cuba, Reinaldo Arenas became a strong supporter of Fidel Castro in his teenage years.

After studying in Havana, he started his career as a journalist for a Cuban magazine and soon wrote El Mundo Alucinante, the only book of his to ever be published in Cuba. He was later imprisoned for his openly gay lifestyle which led to his distrust in Castro, ultimately leading to his escape on a boat fleeing Cuba to the United States.

Arenas began to criticize the Castro regime through his later books until his death in 1990. In his autobiography, Antes que anochezca: autobiografía (English: Before Night Falls), Arenas describes his traumatic time in prison amongst murderers and rapists, his escape to the United States and his struggle with AIDS.

His life prematurely ended when he overdosed on drugs and alcohol while encouraging the Cuban people to fight against communism in his suicide note. He remains one of the most exemplary figures of Cuban rebellion and an overall important figure for the LGBTQ community.

6. Gaiutra Bahadur (Berbice, Guyana)

Born in rural Guyana, Gaiutra Bahadur’s family relocated to the Jersey City when she was six years old. She went on to complete her B.A. in English literature at Yale University and her master’s in journalism at Columbia University.

Through her novel Coolie Woman, Bahadur explains the journey of her great-grandmother who left the Indian city of Calcutta, to be an indentured worker in British Guiana (now known as Guyana). Coolie Woman shows the dark side of suffering, trauma and abuse Indian indentured women suffered under British rule in a land where they were promised land and gold.

Her book definitely hits home for Indo-Caribbeans who constantly are torn between two worlds and struggle to explain their ancestry.

As Bahadur says “How could I write about women whose existence is barely acknowledged?” Gaiutra Bahadur lives in New York City, where she occasionally writes for the New York Times and other magazines. She became the only Caribbean native to win the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

7. Esmeralda Santiago (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Born into a large family of eleven children, Esmeralda Santiago grew up in poverty and unfortunate circumstances in Puerto Rico. At the age of thirteen, her family relocated to Brooklyn where she experienced a harsh culture shock and racism.

She later attended Harvard University and Sarah Lawrence College. Her autobiography describes her eventful life torn between Puerto Rico and Brooklyn. She addresses many of the issues most immigrant children face upon their arrival to America.

Also depicting every immigrant parents’ obsession with education as the only mechanism of escape from the governmental assistance and minimum wage workforce. Santiago continues to write for many magazines and currently resides in New York.

8. Vybz Kartel (Portmore, Jamaica)

For those familiar with his music, this may be quite a surprise (as it was for me reading his book this past summer).

Adidja Azim Palmer, better known by his stage name Vybz Kartel, was born in Kingston, but raised in Portmore, Jamaica which he often refers to as his hometown. Vybz Kartel is known as the the most popular and successful dancehall artiste in Jamaica.

His book, The Voice of The Jamaican Ghetto: Incarcerated But Not Silenced, describes the perils and injustices the majority of Jamaicans in poverty-stricken areas face due to corruption and instability in their government.

As Kartel says “As strange as it may sound, I hope you do not enjoy this book. I hope it disturbs you. I hope after reading you realize there is something wrong with Jamaica that needs to be fixed… I hope you will never look at a ghetto person the same again. I hope you will never see a young girl in a compromising position with an older man and not question what is going on. I hope you will never see a young man in jail and write him off as ‘wutless’ or bad… Most importantly, I hope that you will not only hear but listen to the voice of the ghetto.”

Kartel predicted this book full of government secrets would cost him his life or freedom. He was sentenced to life imprisonment under a murder charge in Tower Street Maximum Security Prison, where he continues to record and release music. In 2013, Princeton endorsed his book.