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Author Spotlight: Caryl Phillips

By March 13, 2018Authors

Caryl Phillips was born on the Caribbean Island of St Kitts on 13th March 1958, 4 months later he moved to England with his parents who settled in Leeds.

Phillips read English at Queen’s College Oxford, during which time he directed plays and spent his summers working at The Edinburgh Festival. When he graduated in 1979 he moved to Edinburgh where he wrote his first play “Strange Fruit”.

 

Much of his writing focuses on the Atlantic Slave Trade, it’s legacy and consequences. “Crossing the River”, which is possibly Phillips’ best known work, won The Commonwealth Writers Prize and was shortlisted for The Booker Prize. The story charts 250 years of the African diaspora, tracking three black people on their separate journeys, on three different continents, all struggling with separation from their native Africa.

As well as writing Caryl Phillips has also taught at universities all over the world, including Ghana, Sweden, Barbados and India. He is currently Professor of English at Yale University.



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