# Marlon James (novelist)
**Marlon James** (born 1970, [Kingston, Jamaica](https://www.edgepedia.org/kingston-jamaica)) is a Jamaican novelist best known for *A Brief History of Seven Killings*, which won the 2015 Man Booker Prize and made him the first Jamaican author to win the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary award.[1](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/) He is also the author of *John Crow's Devil*, *[The Book of Night Women](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-book-of-night-women)*, the Dark Star trilogy beginning with *Black Leopard, Red Wolf*, and *The Disappearers*, and he created the HBO and [Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4) crime drama *Get Millie Black*.[2](https://www.barclayagency.com/speakers/marlon-james/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Kingston, Jamaica, 1970[3](https://granta.com/contributor/marlon-james/) |
| Education | B.A. in Literature, University of the West Indies, 1991; M.A. in Creative Writing, Wilkes University, 2006[4](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/j/marlon-james/) |
| Breakthrough | *A Brief History of Seven Killings* (2014) won the 2015 Man Booker Prize, the American Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the OCM Bocas Prize, and the Minnesota Book Award[1](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/) • [5](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/E-News-Jan-Feb-2022.pdf) |
| Fantasy trilogy | *Black Leopard, Red Wolf* (2019), a National Book Award finalist and winner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize; followed by *Moon Witch, Spider King* (2022)[6](https://pen.org/profile/marlon-james/) • [7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) |
| Latest novel | *The Disappearers* (2026), shortlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2026 National Book Award for Fiction[8](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/marlon-james) • [7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) |
| Screen work | Wrote and executive produced *Get Millie Black*, a five-part crime drama for HBO and Channel 4[2](https://www.barclayagency.com/speakers/marlon-james/) |
| Honors | Guggenheim Fellowship; Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people, 2019[7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) |
## Early life and education
James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, into what he has described as a middle-class family of eight children.[3](https://granta.com/contributor/marlon-james/) • [9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/marlon-james-i-don-t-believe-in-pg-violence-a6694431.html) His father, who died in 2012, was first a policeman and then a lawyer, and passed on his love of Shakespeare and Coleridge; his mother gave him his first prose book, a collection of [O. Henry](https://www.edgepedia.org/o-henry) stories.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/marlon-james-i-don-t-believe-in-pg-violence-a6694431.html) He went from high school to the [University of the West Indies](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-the-west-indies), graduating in 1991 with a B.A. in [Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/literature), and later earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania in 2006.[4](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/j/marlon-james/) • [10](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119431732.ecaf0079)
## Early novels
**A slow start.** His first novel, *John Crow's Devil* (2005), tells of two rival priests, each with a guilty sexual secret, competing for primacy in a remote Jamaican village in the 1950s. It was rejected 78 times before being accepted for publication, then became a finalist for the [Los Angeles Times Book Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/los-angeles-times-book-prize) and the [Commonwealth Writers' Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/commonwealth-writers-prize) and a New York Times Editor's Choice.[5](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/E-News-Jan-Feb-2022.pdf) • [11](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/17/marlon-james-interview-black-leopard-red-wolf) His second novel, *The Book of Night Women*, about a Jamaican slave plantation, won the Minnesota Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was a finalist for the [National Book Critics Circle Award](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-book-critics-circle-award) and the NAACP Image Award.[8](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/marlon-james) • [7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/)
## A Brief History of Seven Killings
James's third novel, *A Brief History of Seven Killings* (2014), is a roughly 700-page polyphonic portrait of 1970s Jamaica built around the attempted assassination of [Bob Marley](https://www.edgepedia.org/bob-marley) in December 1976, the gang truce of 1978, and the violence that followed in Kingston and in New York City during the 1980s and early 1990s.[12](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/marlon-james-the-disappearers/687960/) The novel uses some 30 narrators, each in various forms of patois.[13](https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Anisfield-Wolf-2015-Program.pdf) The Booker judges named it their unanimous choice, and the prize made James the first Jamaican author to win it.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/marlon-james-i-don-t-believe-in-pg-violence-a6694431.html) • [1](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/) Beyond the Booker, the novel won the American Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and the Minnesota Book Award, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has been translated into twenty-one languages.[5](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/E-News-Jan-Feb-2022.pdf) • [14](https://cdn.penguin.co.uk/dam-assets/books/9780241981856/9780241981856-sample.pdf) In 2024 it was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.[2](https://www.barclayagency.com/speakers/marlon-james/)
## The Dark Star trilogy
After the Booker, James turned to epic fantasy. *Black Leopard, Red Wolf* (2019), the first volume of the Dark Star trilogy, follows a crew searching for a mysterious missing child in a mythical African landscape; he had teased the project as an "African Game of Thrones," a comparison that drew wide attention.[15](https://time.com/5521259/marlon-james-black-leopard-red-wolf-book/) The novel was a finalist for the 2019 [National Book Award for Fiction](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-book-award-for-fiction) and won the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction.[6](https://pen.org/profile/marlon-james/) • [7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) The second volume, *Moon Witch, Spider King* (2022), retells the same story from another perspective and became an instant New York Times bestseller.[7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) The third book is expected in 2026 or later.[16](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Final-draft-Pepper.pdf)
## The Disappearers and screen work
*The Disappearers* (2026) marks James's return to realism and to Jamaica after more than a decade focused on the fantasy trilogy.[17](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/books-briefing-marlon-james-disappearers/688292/) The novel centers on a group of closeted gay men in 1980s Kingston who are rehearsing a play when a homophobic mob attacks them, killing one and blinding another, and follows the survivors' lives afterward.[18](https://theweek.com/culture-life/books/the-disappearers-american-scoundrel) • [7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) James has said the book is based on a violent incident that was rumored but never proven, and that he is more concerned with an incident's aftermath than the thing itself.[8](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/marlon-james) It became an instant New York Times bestseller, was shortlisted for the 2026 [Booker Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/booker-prize), and was longlisted for the 2026 National Book Award for Fiction.[7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/) • [8](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/marlon-james)
James also works in television. He wrote and is executive producer of *Get Millie Black*, a five-part crime drama set in Jamaica for HBO and the UK's Channel 4.[2](https://www.barclayagency.com/speakers/marlon-james/) With his editor Jake Morrissey he hosts the podcast *Marlon and Jake Read Dead People*, in which the two discuss deceased authors.[7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/)
## Teaching and recognition
James taught at [Macalester College](https://www.edgepedia.org/macalester-college) in [Saint Paul, Minnesota](https://www.edgepedia.org/saint-paul-minnesota), where he focused on contemporary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and introductory poetry, and was named the college's first writer in residence in 2016.[1](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/) • [19](https://www.macalester.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/02/MacToday_Winter2019.pdf) His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, Harper's, The New York Times, Granta, GQ, and the Caribbean Review of Books.[1](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/) He received a [Guggenheim Fellowship](https://www.edgepedia.org/guggenheim-fellowship) and was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2019; he lives in New York City.[7](https://marlonjameswriter.com/)
## References
1. [Marlon James, Macalester College English and Creative Writing faculty page](https://www.macalester.edu/english-and-creative-writing/facultystaff/marlonjames/)
2. [Marlon James: Award-winning Novelist and Educator, The Steven Barclay Agency](https://www.barclayagency.com/speakers/marlon-james/)
3. [Marlon James, Granta contributor page](https://granta.com/contributor/marlon-james/)
4. [Marlon James, Fantastic Fiction](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/j/marlon-james/)
5. [Marlon James, Ansa Caribbean Awards E-News (Jan–Feb 2022)](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/E-News-Jan-Feb-2022.pdf)
6. [Marlon James, PEN America profile](https://pen.org/profile/marlon-james/)
7. [Marlon James, official author website](https://marlonjameswriter.com/)
8. [Marlon James: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, The Booker Prizes](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/marlon-james)
9. [Marlon James: 'I don't believe in PG violence', The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/marlon-james-i-don-t-believe-in-pg-violence-a6694431.html)
10. [James, Marlon, The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction 1980–2020, Wiley](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119431732.ecaf0079)
11. [Marlon James: 'You have to risk going too far', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/17/marlon-james-interview-black-leopard-red-wolf)
12. [Marlon James Returns to Realism, and to Jamaica, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/09/marlon-james-the-disappearers/687960/)
13. [Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Program 2015](https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Anisfield-Wolf-2015-Program.pdf)
14. [About the Author, Penguin UK sample PDF](https://cdn.penguin.co.uk/dam-assets/books/9780241981856/9780241981856-sample.pdf)
15. [How Marlon James Built a New World in His 'African Game of Thrones', TIME](https://time.com/5521259/marlon-james-black-leopard-red-wolf-book/)
16. [Ansa Caribbean Awards booklet (2023)](https://ansacaribbeanawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Final-draft-Pepper.pdf)
17. [A Bleak, Violent Novel's Unexpected Delights, The Atlantic Books Briefing](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/books-briefing-marlon-james-disappearers/688292/)
18. [Book reviews: 'The Disappearers' and 'American Scoundrel', The Week](https://theweek.com/culture-life/books/the-disappearers-american-scoundrel)
19. [Writer in residence Marlon James, MacToday Winter 2019, Macalester College](https://www.macalester.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/02/MacToday_Winter2019.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Writers and literary biographies › Fiction writers: novelists and genre › Asian, African, and world novelists › Surnames A to Li › Surnames He to Ka*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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