Anthony C. Winkler

Anthony C. Winkler was born in the city of Kingston, Jamaica on February 25, 1942. At the age of eight, his family moved to Montego Bay in St. James. A year later, his father sent him back to Kingston to live with his grandparents. He attended Excelsior College in Kingston and then Mt. Alvernia Academy and Cornwall College, both in Montego Bay for his secondary school education. After leaving high school, Winkler moved back to Kingston where he obtained a job as an accounting clerk with various businesses in that city.

In 1962, he migrated to California in the United States, where he attended the California State University from which he graduated with a B.A. in English 1967 and a M.A. in English in 1968. He briefly taught at the Pasadena City College, then joined a firm of college textbook publishers who influenced him to begin writing. He became a full-time writer in 1975 and returned briefly to Jamaica where he was married. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the United States, where he established himself as a writer of textbooks. He became a full-time freelance writer in 1976.

His first book of fiction, The Painted Canoe took him several years to write and over 10 years to get it published. After many rejections, Kingston Publishers finally published it in 1984. The book was a success both in Jamaica and the United States. In 1987, he published the book The Lunatic which became a bestseller. This was followed by The Great Yacht Race in 1992, Going to Home to Teach in 1995, and The Duppy in 1997. In 1991, he wrote the screenplay for the film version of The Lunatic (1991), and in 1999 his original screenplay, The Annihilation of Fish (1999), was filmed in Los Angeles starring James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, and Margot Kidder. He has also written two plays The Burglar, produced at the Little Little Theatre in May 2003 and the The Hippopotamus Card in 2004.

He has lived in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Cathy since 1979. His daughter is an industrial and occupational psychologist and his son is a high school English teacher.