about

Oonya Kempadoo is a UK, Guyanese, Grenadian citizen, who lives in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, Canada. Author of four novels and critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, her work has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, translated into six languages, twice nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, selected by Oprah Winfrey’s Summer Reads, and she was named a “Great Talent for the 21st Century” by Orange Prize judges. Oonya is a US Fulbright alumni, has taught creative writing in the USA, led workshops in the Caribbean and Quebec, and has served on several award juries including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards (USA & Canada), and Canada Council for the Arts.  She is co-founder of the Grenada Community Library and the writing facilitator and editor of The Grenada Chocolate Family, the first children’s chocolate book, written by children of colour in a cocoa-growing country, which won Gourmand’s ‘Best in the World’ award. Oonya’s latest novel of speculative fiction, Naniki (Dundurn, Canada, 2024), won the Guyana Prize for Literature, was longlisted for the Carol Shield’s Prize, is a Governor General’s Literary Award Finalist for Fiction, and a CBC Best Book. Naniki is part of an eco-social story project that she has produced and directed as an immersive multimedia and live performance experience, with the support of Canadian public funds. 

As a program and project director, Oonya specializes in development and partnership building. For over 20 years, she has practised this in the arts, in socio-cultural and human development, with various United Nations agencies, non-profit and community organizations.

_{Photo credit: Atiba Cudjoe}