Nicole Dennis-Benn

Nicole Dennis-Benn (born 1982) is a Jamaican novelist.

Quotes

• I think what’s going on with this country is that Americans are now experiencing what it’s like to be an immigrant because it’s not the easiest decision to move away from your home land. And so when that decision is made it’s definitely because you’re fleeing something and hoping for the better, but still not wanting to cut ties with your country…
  • On Americans wanting to move to Canada following the 2016 election in “Interview: Nicole Dennis-Benn” in Florida Review

• I feel like we’re constantly evolving as human beings, and there are usually epiphanies that happen. It doesn’t have to be the deepest darkest secrets but something that we didn’t know before, that we just discovered, and we’re like, “Oh. Wow,” and the world suddenly looks different…
  • On how people deal with secrets in “Interview: Nicole Dennis-Benn” in Florida Review

• I could not write properly until I owned every aspect of my identity - my identity as a lesbian woman, my identity as a black woman, my identity as a Jamaican woman, an immigrant, then also a working-class Jamaican woman...
  • On how coming out strengthened her writing in “Nicole Dennis-Benn On 'Patsy'” in NPR (2019 Jun 9)

• Had I lived in Jamaica, I could not have been a writer…I wouldn't be courageous to challenge the issues that I challenge in my work, you know, especially homophobia, sexualization of our young girls, race, class, socioeconomic disparities. Being here in America gave me that opportunity…
  • On how living in America expanded her opportunities in “NICOLE DENIS-BENN” (PBS NewsHour)