Joan Riley was born in Hopewell, Richmond,
St. Mary, Jamaica, the youngest of eight children (six girls and two boys), and was raised by her father after her mother died in childbirth. She received her early education on that island before migrating in 1976 to the
United Kingdom. and
Her True-True Name (edited by
Pamela Mordecai, 1989). Riley co-edited with Briar Wood
Leave to Stay: Stories of Exile and Belonging (Virago, 1996), a collection of fiction and poetry by writers from India, the Caribbean, China, South Africa, the USSR, Canada, Australia and Pakistan, including
Sujata Bhatt,
Fred D'Aguiar,
Michael Donaghy,
Jane Duran,
Michael Hoffman,
Aamer Hussein,
Mimi Khalvati,
Adam Lively,
Sindiwe Magona,
Bharati Mukherjee,
Hanan al-Shaykh,
Janice Shinebourne and
Zinovy Zinik. ==Bibliography==