Marlon James, the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist, has been named Macalester College's first writer in residence. His appointment will begin in January. James, a native of Jamaica, joined Macalester's English Department in 2007.

His 2009 novel, "The Book of Night Women," won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

His 2014 novel "A Brief History of Seven Killings" won the 2015 Booker Prize, the first time that award has gone to a Jamaican writer. It also won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize, a Minnesota Book Award, and other honors. Gov. Mark Dayton proclaimed Oct. 28, 2015, to be Marlon James Day in Minnesota.