“I write to pay tribute to the women who came before me, who first pushed their hands in the dirt and made me. I write so that whoever comes next will always know herself.”

_­ —Safiya Sinclair

Acclaimed poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair explores themes of postcolonial identity, family and womanhood with lush, vivid, pitch-perfect language and fierce intelligence. Born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica, she is the bestselling author of How to Say Babylon, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and was a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and the Kirkus Prize.

“An essential memoir. Sinclair’s devotion to language has been lifelong, and How to Say Babylon is the result. This book is lit from the inside by Sinclair’s determination to learn and live freely, and to see her beloveds freed, too.”

—Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend

How to Say Babylon chronicles Sinclair’s upbringing under the strict, oppressive rule of her devout Rastafarian father, who isolated the family to protect them from the corrupting influence of the outside world. Instilled with a love for literature by her mother, Sinclair uses this gift to find her own voice and gain her freedom. Praised as “gut-wrenching, soul-stirring, electrifying” (Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun and Patsy) and “a tour de force” (Natasha Trethewey, New York Times bestselling author of Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir), it was included on over 17 Best Book of 2023 lists, including The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of the Year, The Washington Post’s Top 10 Books of 2023, TIME Magazine’s Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2023, and The Atlantic’s 10 Best Books of 2023. It was a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show Book Club pick and named one of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023.

Sinclair is also the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Hailed as “truly magical, hypnotic, and devastating” (The Adroit Journal), Cannibal was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year, was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Seamus Heaney First Book Award in the UK, and was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

“Safiya Sinclair writes strange, mythological, gorgeously elaborate lyric poems, with a diction that is both arcane and contemporary. . . . Her language is distinctive, assured, and a marvel to read.”

—Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings

In lyrical talks that reflect her prodigious gifts as a storyteller, she touches on her Jamaican upbringing, her development as a poet, and the necessity of art. Sinclair’s other honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Royal Society of Literature International Writers Prize, and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the Civitella Rainieri Foundation, the Hawthornden Foundation, and the Elizabeth George Foundation. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Granta, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at Arizona State University.