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Erna Brodber was born in 1940 in Woodside. She was educated at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica and also has spent time in the United States and Britain doing research. She initially researched and published in sociology (her Ph.D. thesis on "A Second Generation of Free-men in Jamaica" combined her backgrounds in history and sociology) but has since also written fiction. Her first novel, Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home (1980), met with critical acclaim, particularly for its highly experimental structure. Her second novel, Myal (1988), won her a Commonwealth regional prize, and her third novel, Louisiana (1994), also was favorably reviewed. Brodber's advocates point to the way her work is deeply rooted in Caribbean culture even while it challenges standard definitions of the region's literature. Critical response to her writing continues to grow. Inverting conventional migratory patterns, Brodber recently moved back from Kingston to Woodside, where she continues to write and teach both at the University of the West Indies and in the town itself.
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