Lucinda Roy is a highly acclaimed author, known for her work as a memoirist, novelist, and poet. She was born in Battersea, South London, to a Jamaican writer, artist, and factory worker father and an English actor and teacher mother. Roy has lived and taught in the United States, the United Kingdom, and West Africa, and her writing often reflects her experiences in these diverse locales.
Roy's writing is deeply influenced by her parents' backgrounds and the lessons they imparted to her. From her Black Jamaican-Maroon father, she learned to love the land that her ancestors were taken from, while her White English mother taught her to "dance like trees" on Clapham Common. This blending of cultural influences is evident in Roy's writing, which often explores themes of race, identity, and belonging.
In addition to her work as an author, Roy is also an accomplished educator. She is an Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, where she gives keynotes and addresses on topics such as race and racism, creative writing, education, and campus safety. Roy's writing and teaching are deeply intertwined, as she seeks to use her work to promote understanding and dialogue around these important issues.
Roy's most recent book is "FLYING THE COOP," the second novel in her speculative Dreambird Chronicles trilogy. In this series, she explores a future world where racial conflict and the urban/rural divide have turned the country into the Disunited States. Through her writing, Roy seeks to imagine new ways of understanding and addressing these challenges, drawing on the stories and experiences of enslaved people to engineer hope and resilience.