Michelle Carla Cliff (2 November 1946 – 12 June 2016) was a Jamaican-American author whose notable works included Abeng (1985), No Telephone to Heaven (1987), and Free Enterprise (2004).

She often referenced her writing as an act of defiance—a way to reclaim a voice and build a narrative in order to speak out against the unspeakable by tackling issues of sex and race.

[1] Identifying as biracial and bisexual, Cliff, who had both Jamaican and American citizenship, used her voice to create a body of work filled with prose poetry, novels, and short stories.

"[3] She moved back to Jamaica in 1956 and attended St Andrew High School for Girls, where she kept a diary and began writing, before returning to New York City in 1960.

[7][4] Her first published work came in the form of the book Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise, which covered the many ways Cliff herself experienced racism and prejudice.

Having found fellowship and community with African American and Latina feminists, Cliff's work thrived and contributed to enabling other voices to be heard.