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People's History

People's History of the Caribbean

Raywat Deonandan

Raywat Deonandan was born in Guyana and then immigrated to Canada. He has many degrees, all in the sciences, and tries to juggle his literary art with his academic world of scientific research. His interests are many: from karate, to space exploration, to ancient history.

List of Published Works 

  • Sweet Like Saltwater. Toronto: TSAR, 1999.

Awards

  • 2 Hart House Literary Prizes from the University of Toronto.
  • Winner of the Canadian Author’s Association National Student Literary Competition.

Austin Clarke

“Austin Clarke not only writes in a voice that is entirely his own, he is also one of the more talented novelists at work in the English language today.…His fiction is unique, surprising, comfortable until the moment when it becomes uncomfortable. Then you realize you have learned something new that you didn’t want to know – and it’s essential knowledge. And so on you go, alternately congratulating and cursing Austin Clarke.”

- Norman Mailer

“Uncommonly talented, Clarke sees deeply, and transmits his visions and perceptions so skillfully that reading him is an adventure.”

Yvonne Bobb-Smith

Yvonne Bobb-Smith was born in Trinidad. She now teaches Caribbean Studies at Ryerson University and New College, University of Toronto. Bobb-Smith was the first Executive Director of the Black Secretariat of Canada, and was responsible for the publication of the first ever directory of Black Organizations in Toronto.

List of Published Works

  • I know Who I am: A Caribbean Woman’s Identity in Canada. Toronto: Women's Press, 2003

Shani Mootoo

Shani Mootoo was born in Ireland and raised in Trinidad. She immigrated to Canada in 1977 where she started work as a multimedia artist and videomaker.

In her writing, Mootoo tackles the issues involved in multiculturalism, especially when the hybridity of different cultures lies within one body. Her fundamental concern is with the belief that there is only one monolithic rigid culture that one should follow; she works to disprove this.

List of Published Works 

  • The Predicament of Or. Vancouver: Polestar, 2001.

Sasenarine Persaud

Sasenarine Persaud was born in Guyana and then immigrated to Canada, where he lived for many years until recently; he now lives in Florida.

List of Published Works

  • Hungry Sailor: poems. Toronto: TSAR, 2000.
  • Canada Geese and Apple Chatney: stories. Toronto: TSAR, 1998.
  • A Surf of Sparrow’s Song: a poemanjali. Toronto: TSAR, 1996.
  • Dear Death. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 1989.
  • Demerary Telepathy. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 1988.
  • The Ghost of Bellow’s Man. Leeds: Peepal Tree. 1992.

Rachel Manley

Rachel Manley was born in Cornwall, England. She grew up in Jamaica, attending the University of the West Indies. She now lives between Toronto and Jamaica, where she teaches when she is not writing.

Rachel Manley is the daughter of Michael Manley, Jamaica’s three-term prime minister.

List of Published Works

  • Slipstream: a daughter remembers. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
  • Drumblair: memories of a Jamaican childhood. Toronto: Vintage, 1997.
  • A Light Left On. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 1992.

Rabindranath Maharaj

Rabindranath Maharaj was born in Trinidad, where he taught literature for 12 years before immigrating to Canada over a decade ago. He now lives and teaches in Ajax, Ontario. His writing focuses on issues surrounding the immigrant experience.

List of Published Works

  • The Lagahoo’s Apprentice. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.
  • Homer in Flight. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane, 1997.
  • The Interloper. Frederiction, NB: Goose Lane, 1995.
  • The Writer and His Wife: and other stories. Leeds, Peepal Tree, 1996.

Peter Jailall

Peter Jailall was born in Guyana. He is a short-story writer and poet. He expresses his interest in issues of human rights and social justice in his writing.

Jailall currently teaches in Mississauga, and he writes for the Peel Educator’s Association newspaper.

List of Published Works

  • Yet Another Home. Natural Heritage, 1997.
  • This Healing Place and Other Poems. Natural Heritage/Natural History, 1993.

Pamela Mordecai

Pamela Mordecai was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She worked in the Faculty of Education at the University of the West Indies, where she developed language-arts textbooks. She has worked extensively in media communications, including being a freelance television presenter for 17 years. She immigrated to Canada in 1993 with her family.

Mordecai is especially interested in Caribbean women writers.

List of Published Works

  • Certifiable. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane, 2001.
  • Rohan Goes to Big School. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000.

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.

Neil Bissoondath

Neil Bissoondath was born in Trinidad. He immigrated to Canada over 20 years ago. He was educated at St. Mary’s College as well as York University. He then taught French and English.

Bissoondath tackles issues of migration and dislocation.

He is the nephew of V.S. Naipaul.

List of Published Works

  • Doing the Heart Good. Toronto: Cormorant, 2002.
  • The Worlds Within Her. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
  • The Innocence of Age. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica to a Guyanese father and Jamaican mother. Having lived in Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad, at 16 she had a quick stint in Connecticut before settling in Toronto.