Caryl Phillips
A profound literary voice mapping the fractured histories and identities of the African diaspora across continents and centuries.
Born 1958 (age 68)·Kittitian-British novelist (b. 1958)·Birthday: March 13·Baby Boomers
Biography
Born in St. Kitts and raised in Leeds, England, Caryl Phillips writes from the intimate dislocation of the immigrant experience. His work, spanning novels, essays, and plays, is a sustained inquiry into the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and its reverberations through modern life. Books like 'Cambridge' and 'Crossing the River' employ innovative, polyphonic structures, giving voice to enslaved Africans, Caribbean migrants, and Black Europeans with a quiet, penetrating empathy. More than a historical novelist, Phillips examines how identity is constantly negotiated across borders of race, place, and memory. As a professor at Yale, he extends this conversation, establishing himself as a crucial intellectual bridge between the literary and the historical within the Black Atlantic world.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Caryl was born in 1958, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Caryl Was Born
The biggest hits of 1958
#1 Movie
South Pacific
Best Picture
Gigi
#1 TV Show
Gunsmoke
Caryl's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1958Born
NASA founded
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Volare" — Domenico ModugnoBest Picture: Gigi
1963Started school
JFK assassinated in Dallas; Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,100Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Sugar Shack" — Jimmy Gilmer & The FireballsBest Picture: Tom Jones
1971Became a teenager
Voting age lowered to 18 in the US
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $18,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Joy to the World" — Three Dog NightBest Picture: The French Connection
1974Could drive
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1976Could vote
Apple Computer founded; US bicentennial
Gas: $0.59/galHome: $29,300Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Silly Love Songs" — WingsBest Picture: Rocky
1979Turned 21
Iran hostage crisis begins; Three Mile Island accident
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $37,900Min wage: $2.90/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"My Sharona" — The KnackBest Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
1988Turned 30
Pan Am Flight 103 bombed over Lockerbie
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $74,800Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Faith" — George MichaelBest Picture: Rain Man
1998Turned 40
Google founded; Clinton impeachment
Gas: $1.06/galHome: $107,300Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Too Close" — NextBest Picture: Shakespeare in Love
2008Turned 50
Barack Obama elected first Black US president; financial crisis
Gas: $3.27/galHome: $153,100Min wage: $6.55/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Low" — Flo RidaBest Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
2018Turned 60
Royal wedding of Harry and Meghan; Parkland shooting
Gas: $2.72/galHome: $211,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Donald Trump"God's Plan" — DrakeBest Picture: Green Book
2026Age 68 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel 'A Distant Shore' in 2004.
- His novel 'Crossing the River' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993.
- Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2000.
- Appointed Professor of English at Yale University in 2005, where he continues to teach and write.
Did You Know?
He traveled around the United States by Greyhound bus to research his non-fiction book 'The Atlantic Sound'.
He is a devoted supporter of the Leeds United football club.
His first major writing job was for the BBC on the television series 'The Empire Strikes Back' (not the film).
““We are all born into a history, into a language, into a set of beliefs, but we are not imprisoned by them.””
