Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts. He is the author of numerous books of fiction and non-fiction. A recipient of a 2013 Anthony Sabga Award for Caribbean Excellence, his awards include the PEN Open Book Award, the Commonwealth Literature Prize, the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Crossing the River, which was also short-listed for the Booker Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.