Well-known author Jamaica Kincaid will likely return to Harvard next year as a visiting lecturer for an extended term, Afro-American Studies chair Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Thursday.

The logistics of an offer have yet to be worked out and Kincaid has not formally accepted, said Gates, who is also DuBois Professor of the Humanities. But he said he is "optimistic" she will return.

Gates said the English Department and Afro-American Studies Department will probably ask Kincaid to enter into a "multiple-year" contract as a visiting lecturer. She said last year that she was unlikely to ever serve in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences except as a visitor.

"I think I would find a wholly academic life very confusing." she said last fall.

The West Indian writer, 43, is the author of such acclaimed works as the 1983 novel Annie John and a well-known story collection, At the Bottom of the River. She is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and has written for Rolling Stone, among other publications.

Last semester, Kincaid taught Afro-American Studies 132z., "Domestic Life in Literature," and a fiction section of English Car, a creative writing class.

Although Gates was not specific on what courses Kincaid might offer if she comes back, he said she would likely teach in creative writing again.

Gates said Kincaid's presence will be another indication of the University's commitment to diversity in its faculty. Yesterday, The Crimson reported that FAS will give tenure to Evelyn Brook Higgenbotham, a scholar of Afro-American religious history at the University of Pennsylvania. As of now, she will be the only Black woman with tenure in FAS when she arrives in fall 1994.

"Obviously, the University is serious about hiring Black women," Gates said