Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950 and grew up in a small village until her eighth birthday. She went to college at the University of Guyana, and received a degree in Communications. She held multiple writing related jobs before immigrating to the United Kingdom in 1977.
Throughout her career, Nichols has written many anthologies of poems, most of which are influenced by her Guyanese upbringing and culture. She is also influenced by Caribbean rhythms and incorporates that culture and style into her writing as well.
Nichols has received many awards for her writing, I is a Long-Memoried Woman—her first anthology—won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983, and she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007.
