Austin Chesterfield Clarke (1934–2016) was a novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and cultural attaché. Among his novels are The Survivors of the Crossing (1964), Amongst Thistles and Thorns (1965), The Meeting Point (1967), Storm of Fortune (1973), The Bigger Light (1975), The Prime Minister (1977), and the autobiography Growing up Stupid Under the Union Jack (1980). Among his published collections of short stories are When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks (1971), When Women Rule (1985), Nine Men Who Laughed (1986), and There Are No Elders (1993). His memoir Pigtails n’ Breadfruit: The Rituals of Slave Food, a Barbadian Memoir (1999) was also later published as Love and Sweet Food: A Culinary Memoir (2004). His crowning achievement was The Polished Hoe (2002), which won the Giller Prize for fiction (2002), the 16th Annual Trillium Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Best Book Award for Canada and the Caribbean region (2003), and the Commonwealth Writers Award for best book.