Nicole Dennis-Benn

Nicole Dennis-Benn is a Jamaican novelist. Her debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, was named a "Best Book of the year" by the New York Times and others. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Nicole Dennis-Benn was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Her family lived in Vineyard Town where she spent most of her childhood before moving to Portmore, St. Catherine. At 11 years old, Dennis-Benn won an academic scholarship to the prestigious St. Andrew High School for Girls in Kingston. She left Jamaica at 17 to attend college, receiving a bachelor's degree in Biology and Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University in 2003. She wrote throughout her college years to cope with her homesickness and found that she enjoyed writing more than her pre-med courses. In 2004 she pursued a Masters in Public Health, specializing in women's reproductive health, at the University of Michigan's top ranking MPH program in Ann Arbor, graduating in 2006. Dennis-Benn then went on to work as a Project Manager in Gender, Sexuality and Health Research in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health for four years before finally deciding to pursue her passion as a writer. While working at Columbia, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing, Fiction, from Sarah Lawrence College in 2012.

In 2016 Dennis-Benn published her debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, with W.W. Norton/Liveright.

Dennis-Benn was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, Texas Library Association 2017 Lariat, and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

She has written for The New York Times, ELLE Magazine, Catapult, Red Rock Review, Kweli Literary Journal, Ebony, and the Feminist Wire.

She lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.

Further Reading:

• "A Woman-Child in Jamaica". The New York Times Retrieved January 22, 2017
• "Growing Up with Miss Jamaica" - Elle Magazine Retrieved January 22, 2017
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