Alecia McKenzie was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. After high school, Alecia studied at Troy State University in Alabama, and Columbia University in New York. She later worked as a journalist for the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group, and briefly for CBS, before moving to Belgium, where her first job was as a radio deejay for FM Le Soir. She also worked with The Wall Street Journal / Europe, InterPress Service and other organizations, and taught Communications at the Free University of Brussels (Vesalius College). In 1992, her first collection of short stories, Satellite City, was published and went on to win the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. She is also the author of When the Rain Stopped in Natland and the forthcoming Stories from Yard. Doctor's Orders is her second book for young readers. Alecia currently lives in Singapore with her family but she returns as often as possible to the Caribbean.