Kittitian · b. 1958
Caryl Phillips writes about the African diaspora across centuries and continents. Born in Saint Kitts, raised in England, the author has produced novels, plays, and nonfiction examining slavery, migration, and displacement. "Crossing the River" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993; "A Distant Shore" won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2004. Phillips refuses to let history settle, finding in the past the unfinished business of the present.