List of Caribbean Poets

So, I've noticed that some of my blog readers search for a listing of Caribbean poets. There might be some lists around, but with many new Caribbean poets emerging, I thought about how fluid the situation is, and that a work-in-progress type of listing might be helpful to readers who are interested in learning more about Caribbean poets. This is where my Caribbean poets, publishers and bloggers come in. I will start this listing, but would love your interaction, so that I don't miss anyone!

Poets will be listed in alphabetical order, with their country in brackets. Poets from the Spanish, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean will also be included, and this is where I will probably need the most help. As I learn of new poets, I will add them. Here we go:

A

Michael Abrahams (Jamaica)
Opal Palmer Adisa (Jamaica)
Yasus Afari (Jamaica)
John Agard (Guyana)
Lillian Allen (Jamaica)
Phyllis Allfrey (Dominica)
Martin Samuel Allwood (?)
Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
Kofi Anyidoho (?)
Frank Martinus Arion (Curacao)
Maria Arrillaga (Puerto Rico)
Naomi Ayala (Puerto Rico)

B

Michael Bailey (Mbala) (Jamaica)
Edward Baugh (Jamaica)
Vera Bell (Jamaica)

Janeth Benjamin (Jamaica)
Louise Bennett (Jamaica)
Anton Bernard (Trinidad)
James Berry (Jamaica)
Marion Bethel (Bahamas)
Valerie Bloom (Jamaica)
Frank Booi (Aruba)
Hubert Booi (Bonaire)
Danielle Boodoo-Fortune (Trinidad)
Malika Booker
Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados)
Dionne Brand (Trinidad)
Jean Binta Breeze (Jamaica)
Jean Brierre (Haiti)
Beverley Brown (Jamaica)
Stewart Brown (?)
Lloyd Brown (Trinidad)
Wayne Brown (Trinidad)
Julia Burgos (Puerto Rico)
Ruby Bute (St. Martin)

C

Edgar Cairo (Suriname)
Christian Campbell (Bahamas)
George Campbell (Jamaica)
Vahni Capildeo (Trinidad)
H.D. Carberry (Jamaica)
Marie-Magdeleine Carbet (Martinique)
Jan Carew (Guyana)
Peggy Carr (St. Vincent)
Martin Carter (Guyana)
Lourdes Casal (Cuba)
Adrian Castro (Cuba)
Jesus Cos Causse (Cuba)
Aime Cesaire (Martinique)
Brian Chan (Guyana)
Faustin Charles (Trinidad)
LeRoy Clarke (Trinidad)
Michelle Cliff (Jamaica)
Judith Ortiz Cofer (Puerto Rico)
Marie-Therese Colimon (Haiti)
Loretta Collins (Puerto Rico)
Merle Collins (Grenada)
Frank Collymore (Barbados)
Anna Corniffe (Jamaica)
Chal Corsen (Curacao)
Christine Craig (Jamaica)
Dennis Craig (Guyana)
Tico Croes (Aruba)

D

Luis Daal (Curacao)
Cyril Dabydeen (Guyana)
David Dabydeen (Guyana)
Leonard Dabydeen (Guyana)
Fred D'Aguiar (Guyana)
Leon-Gontran Damas (Martinique)
Mahadai Das (Guyana)
Kwame Dawes (Jamaica)
Neville Dawes (Jamaica)
Rene Depestre (Haiti)
McDonald Dixon (St. Lucia)
Carel de Haseth (Curacao)
Norman de Palm (Aruba)
Rene de Rooy (Suriname)
Robin Dobru (Robin Ravales) (Suriname)
Marcia Douglas (Jamaica)
Modeste Downs (St. Lucia)

E

Nydia Ecury (Aruba)
Kalilah Enriquez (Belize)
Gloria Escoffery (Jamaica)
Martin Espada (Puerto Rico)

F


Howard A. Fergus (Montserrat)
Barbara Ferland (Jamaica)
John Figueroa (Jamaica)
Honor Ford-Smith (Jamaica)

G

Richard Georges (Trinidad & Tobago, British Virgin Islands)
Michael Gilkes (Guyana)
Margaret Gill (Barbados)
Edouard Glissant (Martinique)
Anson Gonzalez (Trinidad)
Ita Gooden (Jamaica)
Lorna Goodison (Jamaica)
Grace Walker-Gordon (Jamaica)
Samuel Gordon (Jamaica)
Jean Goulbourne (Jamaica)
Millicent Graham (Jamaica)
Yashika Graham (Jamaica)
Cecil Gray (Trinidad)
Stanley Greaves (Guyana)
Nicolas Guillen (Cuba)
Esther Gumbs (St. Martin)

H

Jamel Hall (Jamaica)
Claire Harris (Trinidad)
Maggie Harris (Guyana)
Wilson Harris (Guyana)
Henry Habibe (Aruba)
Judith Hamilton (Jamaica)
Albert Helman (Suriname)
A. L. Hendriks (Jamaica)
Kendel Hippolyte (St. Lucia)
Charles Borromeo Hodge (Aruba)
Abdur Rahman Slade Hopkinson (Guyana)
Ishion Hutchinson (Jamaica)
Joan Andrea Hutchinson (Jamaica)

I

Arnold H. Itwaru (Guyana)

J

Cynthia James (Trinidad)
Mirlande Jean-Gilles (Haiti)
Amryl Johnson (Trinidad)
Linton Kwesi Johnson (Jamaica)
Evan Jones (Jamaica)
Elis Juliana (Curacao)

K

Ellsworth McGrahahan Keane (St. Vincent)
Paul Keens-Douglas (Trinidad & Tobago)
Anthony Kellman (Barbados)
Jane King (St. Lucia)
Roi Kwabena (Trinidad)

L

John La Rose (Trinidad)
Leon Laleau (Haiti)
Pierre Lauffer (Curacao)
Tato Laviera (Puerto Rico)

Chantelle Lawes (Jamaica)
Joy Lawrence (Antigua)
Easton Lee (Jamaica)
John Robert Lee (St. Lucia)
Ann-Margaret Lim (Jamaica)
Basil Lopez (Jamaica)
Edward Lucie-Smith (Jamaica)
Vladimir Lucien (St. Lucia)
John Lyons (Trinidad)

M

Thomas MacDermott (Jamaica) * He wrote under the pen name Tom Redcam.
Raymond Mair (Jamaica)
Roger Mais (Jamaica)
Belkis Cuza Male (Cuba)
Delano Malik (Grenada)
Rachel Manley (Jamaica)
E. A. Markham (Montserrat)
Jose Marmol (Dominican Republic)
Una Marson (Jamaica)
Jose Marti (Cuba)
Mark Matthews (Guyana)
Tip Marugg (Curacao)
Marina Ama Omowale Maxwell (Trinidad & Tobago)
Michael Bailey 'Mbala (Jamaica?)
Shara McCallum (Jamaica)
Ian McDonald (Trinidad)
Basil McFarlane (Jamaica)
Claude McKay (Jamaica)
Anthony McNeil (Jamaica)
Mark McWatt (Guyana)
Pauline Melville (Guyana)
Ras Michael (Guyana)
Avi Miller (Jamaica)
Jeanette Miller (Dominican Republic)
Kei Miller (Jamaica)
Pedro Mir (Dominican Republic)
Rooplall Monar (Guyana)
Pamela Mordecai (Jamaica)
Yasmin Morais (Jamaica)
Nancy Morejon (Cuba)
Mervyn Morris (Jamaica)
Monique Morrison (Jamaica)
Elton (Elombe) Deighton  Mottley (Barbados)
Mutabaruka (Jamaica)

N

Philip Nanton (St. Vincent)
Jit Narain (Suriname)
Cherry Natural (aka  Marcia Wedderburn) (Jamaica)
Grace Nichols (Guyana)

O

Federico Oduber (Aruba)
Oku Onuora (Jamaica)

P

Herberto Padilla (Cuba)
Yves Padoly (Martinique?)
Walter Palm (Curacao)
George Parfitt (Trinidad)
Gustavo Perez-Firmat (Cuba)
Sasenarine Persaud (Guyana)
Saint-John Perse (Marie Rene Aguste Alexis Leger) (Guadeloupe)
Marlene Nourbese Philip (Trinidad)
Rene Philoctete (Haiti)
Geoffrey Philp (Jamaica)
Marlene Phipps (Haiti)
Joseph Polius (Martinique)
Velma Pollard (Jamaica)
Aida Cartagena Portalatin (Dominican Republic)

Q

Victor D. Questel (Trinidad)

R

Jennifer Rahim (Trinidad)
Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen (Trinidad)
Claudia Rankine (Jamaica)
Norberto James Rawlings (Domincan Republic)
Roberto Fernandez Retamar (Cuba)
Eric Roach (Trinidad)
Reina Maria Rodriguez (Cuba)
Jacques Roumain (Haiti)
Heather Royes (Jamaica)

S

Andrew Salkey (Jamaica)
Veronica Salter (?)
Pedro Perez Sarduy (Cuba)
Dennis Scott (Jamaica)
Lasana M. Sekou (St. Martin)
Olive Senior (Jamaica)
A.J. Seymour (Guyana)
Philip Sherlock (Jamaica)
Tanya Shirley (Jamaica)
Hazel Simmons-McDonald (St. Lucia)
Louis Simpson (Jamaica)
Jonathan Small (Barbados)
Malachi Smith (Jamaica)
Michael Smith (Jamaica)
Bruce St. John (Barbados)
Fr. Lambert St. Rose (St. Lucia)
Michael Stephenson (?)
Virgil Suarez (Cuba)
Patrick Sylvain (Haiti)

T

Harold M. Telemaque (Trinidad)
Fabian Thomas (Jamaica)
Ralph Thompson (Jamaica)
Guy Tirolien (Guadeloupe)
Trefossa (H.E. De Ziel) (Suriname)

U

V

Antonia Valaire (Jamaica) aka Christina Williams

H. A. Vaughan (Barbados)
Pedro Velasquez (Aruba)
Chiqui Vicioso (Sherezada) (Dominican Republic)
Vivian Virtue (Jamaica)

W

Derek Walcott (St. Lucia)
Rudolph Wallace (?)

Mavric Webb (Jamaica)

Christina Williams (Jamaica) aka Antonia Valaire

X

Y

Mirta Yanez (Cuba)
C. Dale Young (?)

Z

Selection from Inna Mi Heart

A You Mi Want Fi Deh Wid is from Joan Andrea Hutchinson's latest book and CD, Inna Mi Heart. Inna Mi Heart is a collection of Jamaican love poems, written by Joan in the Jamaican dialect, which is very colorful and expressive.

A You Mi Want Fi Deh Wid 

·      Even if you put on fifty poun

Even if you sick and mawga down

Even if you bleach di black fi fayva brown

A you mi want fi ‘deh wid’

Even if you foot shape like afoo yam

And you hand look like song of di banana man

Even if you claim rasta but quietly lick di ham

A you mi want fi ‘deh wid’

So even though you a behave like a clown

And your name a call all over town

A you mi want fi be around

A just you mi want fi ‘deh wid’

Copyright Joan Andrea Hutchinson. Reprinted with author's permission.

Dat Bumpyhead Gal

Dat Bumpyhead Gal was written by Joan Andrea Hutchinson, in response to public criticism of her for wearing the nubian knots hairstyle on a local Jamaican television station in 1996. Joan has since published seven CDs and three books, and Dat Bumpyhead Gal is the title of one of her books and CDs.

Joan's hairstyle,
the inspiration for Dat Bumpyhead Gal





Dat Bumpyhead Gal

Tell mi say mi no good enough fi you TV screen

How mi offend you eyesight

Tell mi say mi is a black, ugly, bumpyhead gal

And mi tell you, mi feeling right

Cuss mi say mi is a bootoo, and mi no have no class

Trace mi and galang rude

Tell mi say a educated woman shoulda know better

And I tell you mi feeling good

 You say mi hairstyle disgusting chaka chaka an tan bad

And favour like something out a street

And say mi should a shame fi lef mi house tan so

And mi smile, for mi feeing sweet

You see, the truth is, mi not ashamed of mi owna self

Mi not afraid of me

When mi look into the mirror, mi like the somebody

Weh mi  see a look pon me

Mi like her thick nappy hair and her broad face

Mi like her in and out of clothes

But most of all mi love weh she stan up for and defend

And, a no pose she a pose

But serious, when you a go fall in love with you

And leggo of all you fear

When you ago take the time tell God thanks fi you life

Instead of fret bout ‘hair’

For if it kinky or straight, if it black or white

Transparent or opaque

God make all a wi fi a special reason

And God don’t make mistake

So if you want to criticize the Father work

Then you life going to be ‘salt’

For the Creator love all a wi and look out fi wi

Even when wi have plenty fault

So galang, call mi black and bumpyhead if you  want

But make sure say you say it loud

Because the Creator love me and me feel good

Fi be bumpyhead, black and proud.

Copyright Joan Andrea Hutchinson. Reprinted with author's permission.

Literary Life After the Calabash International Literary Festival

Joan Andrea Hutchinson

Thanks to my poet of the month, Joan Andrea Hutchinson, for bringing to my attention the planned Asante Adonai Literary Lyme, being organized by Dr. Leachim Semaj, for May 2011 at Asante Adonai, Winefield, St. Ann in Jamaica. See the Jamaica Sunday Gleaner of March 27, 2011 for more details.

Dr. Semaj plans to build on the Calabash model, and in the above Gleaner article, he noted that "where we thought Calabash was weak, we are trying to improve it." As such, the Asante Adonai Lyme hopes to include a children's package. I think this is really great, because children's poetry is an area of Caribbean poetry that is often overlooked. Children do appreciate poetry, and the earlier it is introduced, the better.

Other literary events that are being organized to fill the Calabash void include the Jamaica Poetry Festival, which is being organized by Jamaican poet Yasus Afari, on August 14, 2011 at the Louise Bennett Garden Theatre. Local poets such as Joan Andrea Hutchinson, Mutabaruka, Michael Abrahams, Viv Morris Brown, and Royal African Soldiers will be in performance, as well as international poets.

Jamaica's south coast, which benefitted from Calabash since its inception, will also host the Treasure Beach Breadbasket Festival, which will include the Talking Trees Fiesta, from May 27-29.

So, while we regret that the Calabash International Literary Festival is no more, I am pleased to see that local poets and poetry lovers in Jamaica are keeping Caribbean poetry alive and vibrant with these new literary events. If you can attend or contribute in any other way, please do, whether it's through blogging, tweeting, attending, or financial support. Also, if you have a literary event that you are hosting, please let me know, and I would be very happy to spread the word about it.

Bedspread By Lorna Goodison (Another Poem for Poetry Month)

Today, I am sharing Bedspread, Lorna Goodison's well-known poem about the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. I did notice that a number of my blog readers appeared to be searching for this poem, and I thought I would share it, particularly since this is poetry month. I hope you will enjoy it. For more on Lorna Goodison and her work, please see my previous posts.

Bedspread

Sometimes in the still
unchanging afternoons
when the memories crowded
hot and hopeless against
her brow
she would seek its cool colors
and signal him to lie down
in his cell.
It is three in the afternoon Nelson
let us rest here together
upon this bank draped in freedom
color.
It was woven by women with slender
capable hands
accustomed to binding wounds,
hands that closed the eyes of
dead children,
that fought for the right to
speak in their own tongues
in their own land
in their own schools.
They wove the bedspread
and knotted notes of hope
in each strand
and selvaged the edges with
ancient blessings
older than any white man's coming.
So in the afternoons lying on this
bright bank of blessing
Nelson my husband I meet you in dreams
my beloved much of the world too is
asleep blind to the tyranny and evil
devouring our people.
But, Mandela, you are rock on this sand
harder than any metal
mined in the bowels of this land
you are purer than any
gold tempered by fire
shall we lie here wrapped
in the colors of our free Azania?
They arrested the bedspread.
They and their friends are working
to arrest the dreams in our heads
and the women, accustomed to closing
the eyes of the dead
are weaving cloths still brighter
to drape us in glory in a Free
Azania.

(From Selected Poems, The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 1992)

Copyright Lorna Goodison. Reprinted with the author's permission.

Joan Andrea Hutchinson

Joan Andrea Hutchinson is an amazingly talented and versatile Jamaican poet. In addition to her poetry, she is also a teacher, motivational speaker, actress and storyteller. Joan has often been compared to the late Louise Bennett, Jamaican poet and storyteller, who wrote and performed in the Jamaican dialect.

Joan has a passion for preserving Jamaican culture and dialect, and her poems and CDs reflect the many proverbs and expressions unique to Jamaica. She continues to work with young Jamaicans throughout the island to highlight the island's rich cultural heritage.

The following are some of Joan's poetry collections and CDs:

Inna Mi Heart: Jamaican Love Poetry
Meck Mi Tell Yuh
Dat Bumpy Head Gal
Jamaica Kin Teeth
Everyting Jamaican
Jamaica Ridim and Ryme.

Joan also had a role in the play Laugh Jamaica. To date, as a testament to her talent, she has received the following awards:

Caribbean Hall of Fame Award for Excellence in the Peforming Arts
Jamaica Music Industry (JAMI) Award for Dub Poetry

Throughout this month, I will continue to shine the spotlight on Joan's writings. What are your thoughts? If you have read or listened to any of Joan's work, please let me know.

April is Poetry Month

Hi poetry lovers,

April is poetry month and so I am sharing some thoughts on activities you can do during this month. To kick things off, I will also share a poem from my just published collection, From Cane Field to the Sea. So, here are some ideas. I would love to hear from you on some things you plan to do during poetry month:

• Write a poem
• Share a poem with family, friends, colleagues
• Check out some poetry books from your library
• If you have always wanted to write poems, start working on your manuscript
• Purchase poetry books
• Check out some interesting poetry blogs
• Read poetry to your kids 
• Read a poem to your special someone
• Check out audio poems
• Attend a poetry reading or open mic activities in your area
• Find more poetry links and suggestions from the Poetry Foundation website.

I promised to share a poem from my just published collection, From Cane Field to the Sea. Below is The Road to Respect, originally published in Nursing Science Quarterly, relating to research on nurses' feelings of being respected or not respected.

The Road to Respect

I spoke.
You listened.
I felt valued and honored.
You shared your opinion.
I trusted your wisdom.
The circle of respect was complete.
We saw in each other's eyes our common humanity.
Now, moving to a zone of mutual affirmation,
we felt safe to trust, and learn, and nurture
in the give-and-take of life.

Copyright 2011 Yasmin Morais.

I hope you will find time to have fun with poetry during April. Stay tuned for a posting later on my poet of the month for April.