James, Marlon (1970-…), is a Jamaican writer known for novels that explore the turbulent social and political history of Jamaica. James brings his sweeping, often violent and brutal narratives to vivid life through his skillful use of lyrical Jamaican dialects.
James gained international attention when his third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (2014), won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. The prize, now called the Booker Prize, is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary award. The long novel takes place in Jamaica and New York City from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. It takes the form of an imagined oral biography, told by more than 70 characters—ghosts, killers, members of Parliament, drug dealers, con men, beauty queens, United States federal agents, and journalists. Each of these characters has some connection to the actual 1976 assassination attempt on Jamaican singer Bob Marley.
James’s first novel was John Crow’s Devil (2005). It centers on a desperate battle for spiritual power between two opposing religious leaders in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. His second novel, The Book of Night Women (2009), describes a revolt by enslaved people on a Jamaican sugar plantation in the early 1800’s. In 2019, James published Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first volume in his planned “Dark Star” fantasy series. In the novel, a mercenary (hired soldier) begins a years-long quest to track a missing child through several ancient African kingdoms. Moon Witch, Spider King (2022) is the second book in the series.
James was born on Nov. 24, 1970, in Kingston, Jamaica. He received a B.A. degree in languages and literature from the University of the West Indies in 1991 and an M.A. degree in creative writing from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 2006. James settled in Minnesota and has taught literature and creative writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 2007.
