Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the internationally bestselling author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and the Kirkus Prize. How to Say Babylon was named a Best Book of the Year on over 17 year-end lists, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME Magazine, and The Atlantic, and was named one of the Best Books of the 21st Century by Kirkus Reviews. It was a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show Book Club pick, and one of President Barack Obama’s Favourite Books of 2023. Her other honours include a Guggenheim fellowship and the 2025 Royal Society of Literature International Writers Prize.