Nicole Dennis-Benn was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Her debut novel Here Comes the Sun, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a NPR Best Books of 2016, an Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Entertainment Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016, a BuzzFeed Best Literary Debuts of 2016, and received a starred review from Kirkus. Her latest novel, Patsy, was published in 2019. Dennis-Benn is a Lambda Literary Award winner, named by Time Out Magazine as an immigrant making a stamp on New York City. She has been named a finalist for the Princeton Arts Fellowship, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, and The New York Public Library Young Lions Award. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, ELLE Magazine, Electric Literature, Lenny Letter, Catapult, Kweli Literary Journal, Mosaic, Ebony, and the Feminist Wire, and has been awarded a Richard and Julie Logsdon Fiction Prize; and two of her stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Fiction. Vice named Dennis-Benn an immigrant author “who is making American Literature great again.”
Dennis-Benn teaches in City College’s MFA Program and in the Creative Writing Program at NYU; and has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Lambda, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Hurston/Wright, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
Instagram: @ndennisbennTwitter: @ndennis_benn
Image courtesy of Jason Berger
