American writer, born in Jamaica (then a colony of Great Britain). One of the prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance (see Blacks in the Americas) in black literature of the 1920s, he was known for his poems and novels of black life, first in Jamaica (Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, both 1912) and later in the United States.
After 1914 several of his poems were published in various American periodicals; they were primarily lyric works decrying injustice. After World War I (1914-1918) McKay lived in England and France and visited the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He also served as an editor of and contributor to the left-wing periodicals The Liberator and The Masses.
McKay's first novel, Home to Harlem (1928), a vivid picture of a black soldier's life in New York City after his return from World War I, was a popular success. Other novels by McKay include Banjo (1929), set on the waterfront of Marseille, and Banana Bottom (1933), about Jamaica. McKay's poetry and prose were notable for his use of traditional forms to express unfamiliar ideas and themes, many of which related to the black experience in the United States. He also wrote an autobiography, A Long Way from Home (1937), and a sociological study, Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). In 1942 he converted to Roman Catholicism and renounced his former left wing philosophy.