Grace Nichols joins Beryl Gilroy among the most important of Guyana's prolific women writers. Drawing upon colonial and contemporary history, proverbs, riddles, languages, and myths of her South American country, she has written poetry, children's books, and fiction.

Born 18 January 1950 in Georgetown, Guyana, Grace Nichols is the fifth of seven children. Until age eight she attended elementary school in Highdam, a small village along the Guyanese coast, where her father was the headmaster and her mother a piano teacher. In 1958 her family, including her five sisters and one brother, moved to Georgetown, where she completed her elementary schooling at St. Stephens Scots' School. Eager to make a living as a primary school teacher, Nichols left her high school, the Progressive and Preparatory Institute, at age sixteen without completing the A levels. Later she managed to secure a degree in communications from the University of Guyana. After graduation she...