Nicole Dennis-Benn

Nicole Dennis-Benn is a Jamaican American author who won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction twice — for Here Comes the Sun (2017) in 2017 and for Patsy (2019) in 2020. Here Comes the Sun is set in a Jamaican resort town and follows several women navigating poverty, sexuality, and the legacies of colonialism. Patsy is about a Jamaican immigrant in Brooklyn who is undocumented, exploring the costs of migration and the bonds between mothers and daughters. Dennis-Benn grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, in a strict religious household, and her work is deeply informed by her experience of queer identity in a homophobic Caribbean context. She has spoken extensively about the need for representation of queer people of colour in literary fiction. She earned her MFA from Cornell University and has taught creative writing. She lives in New York City with her wife and is one of the most important voices in contemporary queer fiction.