Mark McWatt

{{Infobox person

| name = Mark McWatt

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|09|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = Guyana

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| education = University of Toronto (1966–70)

| alma_mater = Leeds University

| occupation = Writer and academic

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| notable works = Suspended Sentences (2005)

| awards = Commonwealth Writers' Prize; Casa de las Américas Prize

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Mark McWatt (born 29 September 1947)[http://www.caribarts.org/UserFiles/File/Marc%20McWatt%20-%20bio%20material.pdf "Mark McWatt — Brief Biography".] is a Guyanese writer and former professor of English at University of the West Indies.

Biography

McWatt was born in 1947 in Guyana,{{Cite web|date=27 September 2009|title=Landscape and Identity: Re-encountering Guyana in an interview With Mark McWatt|url=https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/09/27/landscape-and-identity/|first=Lucy|last=Evans|access-date=12 January 2021|website=Kaieteur News|language=en-US}} 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 and completed a Ph.D. in 1975. 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.{{Cite web|title=Mark McWatt|url=https://poetryarchive.org/poet/mark-mcwatt/|access-date=12 January 2021|website=Poetry Archive|language=en-GB}}

He was founding editor, in 1986, of the Journal of West Indian Literature{{cite journal|url=https://www.jwilonline.org/about/about-jwil/|title=About JWIL|journal=Journal of West Indian Literature|publisher=The University of the West Indies|access-date=8 May 2025}} 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.[http://www.mona.uwi.edu/conferences/2006/monaconf/profiles/mcwatt.htm Mark McWatt biography], University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. A review of Suspended Sentences in the Journal of West Indian Literature called it "haunting, magical and profane".{{Cite web|title=Suspended Sentences {{!}} Peepal Tree Press|first=Lisa R.|last=Brown|work=Journal of West Indian Literature |url=https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/reviews/suspended-sentences|access-date=12 January 2021|via=www.peepaltreepress.com}}

He co-edited with Stewart Brown the literature compilations Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse[http://www.peepaltreepress.com/author_display.asp?au_id=133 Mark McWatt page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091226230046/http://www.peepaltreepress.com/author_display.asp?au_id=133 |date=26 December 2009 }} at Peepal Tree Press. 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").

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}})