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. The book appeared on over 17 year-end “Best Books” lists, was a Read with Jenna/TODAY Show pick, and one of President Barack Obama’s Favourite Books of 2023. Sinclair has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2025 Royal Society of Literature International Writers Prize.