Early life Nunez was born in
Cocorite, Trinidad, on 18 February 1944. She began writing as early as nine years of age and won the first-place prize for the "Tiny Tots" writing contest in the
Trinidad Guardian. She emigrated from
Trinidad to the United States after completing high school at the age of 19 in 1963. The author of eight novels, she was also co-editor with Jennifer Sparrow of
Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, co-editor with
Brenda M. Greene of the collection of essays
Defining Ourselves: Black Writers in the 90s, and author of several monographs of literary criticism. which received funding from the
National Endowment for the Humanities,
The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Reed Foundation under her direction as its co-director from 1986 to 2000. Nunez also hosted a radio program on
WBAI 99.5FM and is chair of the
PEN Open Book Award Committee.
Publishers Weekly praised it for "[the] expressive prose and convincing characters that immediately hook the reader" and for handling family conflicts and immigration identity vividly. Her final novels were
Not for Everyday Use (2014) and
Now Lila Knows (2022). ==Selected novels==