Amanda Haynes is a Bajan writer and creative director with an interdisciplinary background in culture, communications, and strategic planning/design thinking for social impact.

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She has worked as a writer in both advertising and journalism, and received a Special Mention in the 2017 Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award for her unpublished novella The Ups and Downs of Dessa Darling. She was later awarded the 2019 Cropper Foundation Caribbean Writers Residency in Fiction, and in 2025, selected for the PREE Writing Studio (Fiction). Amanda also served on the board of the National Cultural Foundation (Barbados) in 2020, where she chaired the Cultural Development Committee.

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In parallel with her creative practice, Amanda led the transformation of the ASPIRE Foundation (Barbados) Inc. from concept to respected institution. Joining the project as a researcher in 2014, she worked alongside its founders to shape the strategic direction, ultimately overseeing its formal establishment through partnerships with government, philanthropy, and civil society. She became programme manager in 2016 and served as CEO from 2019 to 2021. In that role, she led regional advocacy for Caribbean social impact financing, representing the region at the WTO, WINGS, UN SDG platforms, and the IDB Group. She also directed the design and distribution of high-impact grants—including emergency COVID-19 support—to diverse non-profits. Since then, she has continued to serve as a consultant on select social impact projects aligned with Caribbean arts and culture.

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An alumna of the University of Warwick (MA, Cultural Policy & Management) and the University of the West Indies (BA, English Literature), Amanda’s writing has most recently appeared in Burnaway, an Atlanta-based magazine of contemporary art and criticism.

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Follow her work here.