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Welcome!
About me
I'm a writer, Jamaican, bawn yah, a lifelong resident of Kingston, retired environmentalist but still an enviro loudmouth, founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust, a mother, wife (more than once!), sister, grand aunty, a lover of nature, a reader, thinker, advocate, activist, sister. These days, an elder.
I've written six published novels, one collection of my 1990s newspaper columns, a children’s book, many articles, short stories, grant proposals, rants, laments and some non fiction. You can sign up for my Substack INROADS here
My most recent novel, A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE, was published in February 2025 by Dialogue Books in the UK and Algonquin Books in the US. Paperback soon come.
Photo credit: Jeremy Francis
PRAISE FOR A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE
“What begins as one woman’s symphony and loss soon unravels stone by stone, secret by secret until we’re left with nothing less than the brutal, turbulent, wild, and haunted history of Jamaica itself. Miss Pauline is the dazzling heroine of our times, a cypher for uncovering the secrets her world keeps hidden even as she hides her own.” Marlon James, Booker-prize winning author, MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING.
“This is a profound and beautiful novel, rich with encounters with the past and atonements in the present.” Julia Alvarez, best selling author of THE CEMETARY OF UNTOLD STORIES.
“McCaulay possesses a Steinbeck-like social awareness . . . A HOUSE FOR MISS PAULINE is a beautiful, poetic novel that makes me want to explore McCaulay’s entire back catalogue.” Julia Kelly, Irish Times.
"A vivid story of inheritance and belonging, informed by the author’s own fascinating family history.” Hephzibah Anderson, Daily Mail. Read the full review here.
“Delightful and big-hearted ... kept me turning pages deep into the night." Claire Adam, Guardian. Read the full review here.
Bublished February 2025 by Dialogue Books (UK) and Algonquin Books (USA)
Buy from Algonquin Books (USA)
PRAISE FOR daylight come
“Sadly, nothing in this powerful glimpse of a possible future strains credulity; we could be building precisely this planet. Its readers, I hope, will be moved to take action right now, while we still have time to avert some of the damage. And I hope they will be moved, too, by the gritty evocation of unity across difference that allows effective resistance.” Bill McKibben, author of HERE COMES THE SUN.
"Like the best science fiction, DAYLIGHT COME isn't just fiction but a warning of a very possible future. Kei Miller, author of THINGS I HAVE WITHHELD.
“This driving narrative explores issues of climate change from a non-European perspective. An Important book. Ingrid Persaud, author of THE LOST LOVE SONGS OF BOYSIE SINGH.
PRAISE FOR GONE TO DRIFT
GONE TO DRIFT is a Jamaican coming-of-age story; realistic, often funny and deeply touching." Pamela Morcedai, author of DE BOOK OF JOSPEPH.
"McCaulay’s prose is lyrical. A solemn adventure about resolve, loyalty, and family, that gives readers insight into life in a small fishing community and brings to light the dangers marine life face in the wild.” School Library Journal, USA
"The relationships between boy and elder, man and sea, crime and poverty all lift McCaulay’s first children’s novel into a different league. Beautiful.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The heartbreaking realism of this story of innocence lost at sea truly sets this novel apart.” Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, USA
"This makes a good choice for adventure fans, the eco-conscious, and those hoping to understand the economic hardships faced by those who make their living from the sea.” Booklist
"A compelling coming-of-age story with a strong sense of place and culture. Readers will almost hear the cries of the seabirds and the chirps of the dolphins leaping across the Caribbean. Just as strong is the depiction of the social challenges the characters face.” VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocate) magazine
Published in 2015 by Papillote Press (Dominica and UK)
Published in 2016 by Harper Collins (USA)
PRAISE FOR HURACAN
“A sharp-eyed, salty-sweet mix of family history and historical fiction from Jamaica: Diana McCaulay has captured the bright tropic warmth, the violence and beauty of her birthplace like a born storyteller. Written in a vigorous, patois-inflected prose, HURACAN scissors intriguingly backwards and forwards in time from the 1980s to the slave-driving 18th century. Over it all, hovers the figure of Scottish abolitionist Zachary Macaulay, who came to the cane cutting colony as a young man. Along the way, unforgettably, themes of homecoming, rootlessness and belonging are explored. All life is written in these haunting pages.” Ian Thomson, author of THE DEAD YARD: Tales of Modern Jamaica.
"Diana McCaulay has done her forebears proud, rendering their stories in clear and evocative prose that is imbued with historical fact and imagined detail. She has written a big book, a novel of consequence that many different kinds of readers will enjoy and benefit from… this novel is a wonderful read and a welcome addition to every Caribbeanist library.” Mary Hanna, Jamaica Observer.
“No novel I’ve recently encountered wrestles so earnestly — and so movingly — with the ethical dimensions of what Alfred López calls “bourgeois imperial whiteness” than Huracan. Despite this evident ambition, however, McCaulay’s measured voice seldom slips into diatribe. Like so many of us, she just wants to discover, intimately, the true nature of her ancestry — a task made more difficult by the notorious fissures and absences which govern the Caribbean archive. Though she takes her partial knowledge for granted, one can feel McCaulay sigh a breath of relief at discovering her worst fears are unfounded: her ancestors were not slaveowners. If not such villains, then, her novel asks, who were her ancestors, really, fundamentally?” Stephen Narain, Los Angles Review of Books.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/redemption-songs/
“Diana McCaulay’s HURACAN is a deceptive novel, a hauntology. This intergenerational story is so deftly woven and fluidly told that you quite forget the weight of the history underlying it. Shifting between narratives set roughly a hundred years apart, the novel opens in 1986 with the return of its protagonist from foreign shores to the land of her birth after an absence of fifteen years.
“As Leigh McCaulay, the contemporary protagonist of HURACAN, soon discovers, ‘bad things could happen even though the fences ran around the base of a hill and your house was right on top’ . As she tries to slip back into the Jamaica she left as a fifteen-year-old, Leigh is confronted at almost every turn by her foreignness, born not merely from having been away so long but also because of her status as a minority: ‘White Gal!’ shouts a bystander as she’s driven home from the airport. And thereupon hangs this tale.” Annie Paul, University of the West Indies, Mona.
PRAISE FOR DOG-HEART
“McCaulay showcases her formidable writing skills in this ambitious, heart-breaking work to excellent effect…the mirror McCaulay relentlessly holds up doesn’t let anyone off the hook, least of all those who read this book without flinching.” Annie Paul, Editor-in-Chief, PREE.
“DOG-HEART is a well-written and compelling work of fiction with a strong moral purpose.” Ian Thomson, Times Literary Supplement.
“My admiration for Diana McCaulay’s debut novel DOG-HEART is unbounded… this book should be read by every Jamaica, especially by those who are afraid to venture below Cross Roads.” Ralph Thompson, Bookends, Jamaica Observer.
“This powerful contemporary novel is so relevant for our times, recent tragic events we have lived through have their seeds in this book.” Jamaica Observer.
“McCaulay’s real achievement in this her first novel is that she helps us see there are no easy answers to questions of class structures and class relations, to poverty and violence... this is a fine first novel.” Lorna Down, Jamaica Journal.
“Masterfully told, when you read DOG-HEART you will feel Jamaica's heart beating ... and breaking.” Esther Figueroa, independent film maker.
Jamaica and me
