Olive Senior

Olive Senior was born in Jamaica. She is trained as a journalist and has spent most of her working life in the book publishing industry in Jamaica. Her interests lie in social and cultural history. Senior thas also taught in the writing programmes at the University of Toronto, Barnard College in New York, the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and at Humber College in Toronto.

In her works, Senior often explores the tension between the rural and the urban, using Jamaica’s landscape as a backdrop. She tackles issues of colonization, history, religion, race, and politics. She often uses a child’s point of view, as well as rhythmic, creolised language.

Senior lives between Toronto and Kingston, Jamaica.

List of Published Works

• Discerner of Hearts. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995.
• Gardening in the Tropics. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994.
• Arrival of the Snake Woman. London: Longman, 1989.
• Summer Lightning and Other Stories. London: Longman, 1986.
• Talking of Trees. Kingston: Calabash, 1986.

Awards

• Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Summer Lightning and Other Stories in 1987.