Mark McWatt

Mark McWatt
Born	(1947-09-29) 29 September 1947 (age 77) Guyana
Education	University of Toronto (1966–70)
Alma mater	Leeds University
Occupation(s)	Writer and academic
Notable work	Suspended Sentences (2005)
Awards	Commonwealth Writers' Prize; Casa de las Américas Prize

Mark McWatt (born 29 September 1947) ^[1] is a Guyanese writer and former professor of English at University of the West Indies.

Biography

McWatt was born in 1947 in Guyana, ^[2] attending many schools throughout the country due to his father's position as a district officer. McWatt attended the University of Toronto (1966–70) and Leeds University, where he studied the works of Wilson Harris ^[2] and completed a Ph.D. in 1975. ^[1] He took a position at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados, as an assistant lecturer, then moved up to Professor of West Indian Literature in 1999, until retiring in 2007 as Professor Emeritus. ^[3]

He was founding editor, in 1986, of the Journal of West Indian Literature ^{[1] [4]} and published three collections of poetry, the second of which, The Language of Eldorado (1994), was awarded the Guyana Prize. His 2005 first work of fiction, Suspended Sentences, was the winner of a Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2006, as well as the Casa de las Américas Prize for best book of Caribbean Literature in English or Creole. ^[5] A review of Suspended Sentences in the Journal of West Indian Literature called it "haunting, magical and profane". ^[6]

He co-edited with Stewart Brown the literature compilations Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse ^[7] and The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives.

McWatt has said his poetry was inspired first by the Guyana landscape, and how it can "at once alter and respond to interior states". His poems reflect his views of the natural world and the supernatural, including a vampire of Caribbean folklore ("Ol' Higue"), and of marriage and domesticity ("A Man in the House"). ^[3]

Bibliography

Poetry

• Interiors – Dangaroo Press, 1989
• The Language of Eldorado – Dangaroo Press, 1994 ( ISBN   978-1-84523-402-7)
• The Journey to Le Repentir – Peepal Tree Press, 2009 ( ISBN   978-1-84523-081-4)

Fiction

• Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement – Peepal Tree Press, 2005 ( ISBN   978-1-84523-001-2)

As editor

• The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse – edited with Stewart Brown, 2005
• The Caribbean Short Story: Critical Perspectives – edited with Lucy Evans, and Emma Smith; Peepal Tree Press, 2011 ( ISBN   978-1-84523-126-2)

References

1. "Mark McWatt — Brief Biography".
2. Evans, Lucy (27 September 2009). "Landscape and Identity: Re-encountering Guyana in an interview With Mark McWatt". Kaieteur News . Retrieved 12 January 2021.
3. "Mark McWatt". Poetry Archive. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
4. "About JWIL". Journal of West Indian Literature. The University of the West Indies. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
5. Mark McWatt biography, University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.
6. Brown, Lisa R. "Suspended Sentences | Peepal Tree Press". Journal of West Indian Literature. Retrieved 12 January 2021– via www.peepaltreepress.com.
7. Mark McWatt page Archived 26 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine at Peepal Tree Press.

Further reading

• Jane Bryce (October 2010). "Poems of Penitence and Pilgrimage" sx salon , 1. Retrieved 12 April 2017.