Alecia McKenzie | |
---|---|
Born | |
Alma mater | Troy University; Columbia University |
Occupation(s) | Writer and journalist |
Awards | Commonwealth Writers Prize |
Alecia McKenzie (born Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican writer and journalist. [1]
She studied at Alpha Academy in Kingston, Troy University in Alabama, and Columbia University in New York, focusing on languages, art and journalism. [2] At Troy University, she was the first Jamaican editor of the student newspaper, The Tropolitan, and graduated summa cum laude.
She has worked for various international news organizations and has taught Communications at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. [3] Besides Jamaica, she has lived in the United States, Belgium, England and Singapore and now mainly shares her time between France, where she is based with her family, and the Caribbean. [4]
Her first collection of short stories, Satellite City, won the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean). Her second book, When the Rain Stopped in Natland, is a novella for young readers, and has been included on the literacy program in several schools. [5]
That was followed by a novella for teenagers, Doctor’s Orders, which is a part-adventure, part-detective story, with mostly teenage characters, set in the Caribbean; and a second collection of stories, Stories From Yard, first published in its Italian translation. [6] Her fifth book, Sweetheart, a novel, was on 21 May 2012 announced as the Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012. [7] The French translation of Sweetheart (Trésor) won the Prix Carbet des lycéens in 2017 - translated by S. Schler. [8]
In 2020, her novel A Million Aunties was published in the Caribbean and North America, and it went on to be longlisted for the 2022 International Dublin Literary Award. Hardback and paperback editions were published in the United Kingdom in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
McKenzie's stories have appeared in the following anthologies, among others: The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, Global Tales, Light Transports, Girls' Night In , Stories from Blue Latitudes, The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories, Bridges: A Global Anthology of Short Stories, Crises, Risks and New Regionalisms in Europe, [9] Extranezas cosmopolitas (Spanish), and Rómanska Ameríka (Icelandic). [10] Literary magazines and sites that have carried her short fiction include The Malahat Review and Culture (French). [11]
Her poetry has also been published in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing , the Journal of Caribbean Literatures, [12] Leggere Donna , The Gleaner and other publications.
As a reporter, she has written numerous articles that have appeared in a range of media, including The Guardian , [13] Black Enterprise , The Wall Street Journal Europe , New African , [14] and Chess Life .
Olive Marjorie Senior is a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal in 2005 by the Institute of Jamaica for her contributions to literature. Other awards she has won include the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Senior was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2021, serving in the post until 2024.
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Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most of these territories have become independent nations since the 1960s, though some retain colonial ties to the United Kingdom. They share, apart from the English language, a number of political, cultural, and social ties which make it useful to consider their literary output in a single category. The more wide-ranging term "Caribbean literature" generally refers to the literature of all Caribbean territories regardless of language—whether written in English, Spanish, French, Hindustani, or Dutch, or one of numerous creoles.
Ian McDonald is a Caribbean-born poet and writer who describes himself as "Antiguan by ancestry, Trinidadian by birth, Guyanese by adoption, and West Indian by conviction." His ancestry on his father's side is Antiguan and Kittitian, and Trinidadian on his mother's side. His only novel, The Humming-Bird Tree, first published in 1969, is considered a classic of Caribbean literature.
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