Marlon James was born in the Caribbean island of Jamaica in 1970. A Short History of Seven Killings is his most recent book. He's also the author of The Book of Night Ladies, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award in 2010, as well as being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was a New York Times Editors' Pick and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for First Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. James is a Minneapolis resident.