A native of Barbados, he moved to New York in 1977. He studied at Virginia Commonwealth University. He graduated from Baruch College of CUNY with a bachelor's degree in finance and a master's degree (1985)^[1] in quantitative economics. He served first as a statistician at the New York City Department of Investigation, then as a senior economist at the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance. He studied with Paule Marshall at Virginia Commonwealth University in the MFA program.

His work has appeared in Callaloo, Caribbean Vibes, Gumbo,^[2] InSyte Magazine,^[3] He teaches creative writing at the University of Oklahoma.^[4]

• 2000: Virginia Governor's Award for the Arts nomination
• 2000: Commonwealth of Virginia/Library of Virginia Literary Award
• 2000: ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award for Pictures of a Dying Man
• 2000: Gustavus Myers Book Award, finalist for Pictures of a Dying Man
• 2003: Whiting Award

• Flickering Shadows. Coffee House Press. 1996. ISBN 978-1-56689-049-6. Agymah Kamau.
• Pictures of a Dying Man. Coffee House Press. 1999. ISBN 978-1-56689-087-8.

• Agymah Kamau profile at The Whiting Foundation
• "Interview With Writer Agymah Kamau, Novelist and former economist with the state of New York", Odeo, Oct 26, 2006^{[permanent dead link]}