Fred D’Aguiar

Fred D’Aguiar was born in London in 1960 to recent Guyanese immigrants, but around the age of two, he was sent back to live with his grandmother and his extended family. He then moved back to London at the age of twelve. As a teenager, D’Aguiar published poetry in local newspapers and became strongly influenced by the atmosphere of racial tension in London during the 1970s. This led him to become politically engaged in his writing, which often focuses on racism and the legacy of slavery. After training to be a psychiatric nurse, he graduated in African and Caribbean studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury, in southern England. He published his first book of poetry, Mama Dot (named after his grandmother), in 1985, the same year as his graduation. The success of this first book established D’Aguiar’s reputation as an influential young poet capable of expanding the scope of British literature in the 1980s and 1990s. During the next few years, he wrote successful poetry and plays, focusing on multiculturalism, Afro-Caribbean traditions, and the legacy of slavery. D’Aguiar published his first novel, The Longest Memory, in 1994, which depicts slavery in the United States, and won two prestigious prizes. A prolific writer, D’Aguiar wrote a play, four more novels, two narrative poems, and two collections of poetry in the two decades that followed. D’Aguiar has taught at various universities, including the University of Cambridge, Amherst College, and the University of Miami. He is currently a Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of California, Los Angeles.