Merle Collins

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Merle Collins (born 29 September 1950 in Aruba)[http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/uid=31/tocnode?id=g9781405192446_chunk_g978140519244658_ss1-12 "Collins, Merele"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131144425/http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/uid=31/tocnode?id=g9781405192446_chunk_g978140519244658_ss1-12 |date=31 January 2016 }}, Blackwell Reference. is a Grenadian poet, novelist and short-story writer.

Life

Collins' parents are from Grenada, where they returned from Aruba shortly after her birth. Her primary education was in St George's, Grenada. She later studied at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, earning degrees in English and Spanish in 1972.[http://www.mona.uwi.edu/conferences/literatures/profiles/collins.htm "Dr. Merle Collins"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063701/http://www.mona.uwi.edu/conferences/literatures/profiles/collins.htm |date=4 March 2016 }}, Profile from the 23rd Annual Conference on West Indian Literature, University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. She then taught history and Spanish in Grenada for two years and subsequently in St Lucia.

In 1980, she graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, DC, with a master's degree in Latin American Studies. She graduated from the London School of Economics with a Ph.D. in Government.

Collins was deeply involved in the Grenadian Revolution and served as a government coordinator for research on Latin America and the Caribbean. She left Grenada for England in 1983.[http://www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/merle-collins Author information] at Peepal Tree Press.

Academic work

From 1984 to 1995, Collins taught at the University of North London. She is currently a Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of Maryland,[http://www.sgu.edu/news-events/news-archives04-DrMerleCollinsGrenadian.html "Dr. Merle Collins – Grenadian poet and novelist", St George's University website.] where she was selected as 2018–2019 Distinguished Scholar Teacher.[http://www.english.umd.edu/news/34981 "Merle Collins Selected as 2018-2019 Distinguished Scholar Teacher"], Department of English, University of Maryland, 3 April 2018.

Her critical works include "Themes and Trends in Caribbean Writing Today" in From My Guy to Sci-Fi: Genre and Women's Writing in the Postmodern World (ed. Helen Carr, Pandora Press, 1989), and "To be Free is Very Sweet" in Slavery and Abolition (Vol. 15, issue 3, 1994, pp. 96–103).

Creative writing

Collins' first collection of poetry, Because the Dawn Breaks, was published by Karia Press in London in 1985, at which time Collins was a member of African Dawn, a performance group combining poetry, mime, and African music. In England, she began her first novel, Angel, which was published in 1987. Angel follows the lives of Grenadians as they struggled for independence, and is specifically about a young woman going through the political turbulence in Grenada at the time. Her collection of short stories, Rain Darling, was produced in 1990, and a second collection of poetry, Rotten Pomerack, in 1992. The poems in this collection explore experiences of Caribbean immigrants in England.{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Merle |title=Rotten Pomerack |publisher=Virago |year=1992 |isbn=185381556X}}

Collins' second novel, The Colour of Forgetting, was published in 1995. A review of her 2003 poetry collection, Lady in a Boat, states: "Ranging from poems reveling in the nation language of her island to poems that capture the beauty of its flora, Collins presents her island and people going about the business of living. They attempt to come to terms with the past and construct a future emerging out of the crucible of violence. Lady in a Boat is a poignant retelling of a period in history when, for a brief moment, Caribbean ascendancy seemed possible. Merle Collins shows how the death of this moment continues to haunt the Caribbean imagination."Bobb, June D., "'Want[ing] a Different Song': Elegy for an Island", The Caribbean Writer. Her most recent collection of stories, The Ladies Are Upstairs, was published in 2011.{{Cite web |title=Lady in a Boat |url=https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/lady-boat |access-date=2025-06-06 |website=peepaltreepress.com}}

Her 2023 novel, Ocean Stirrings (subtitled "A Work of Fiction in Tribute to Louise Langdon Norton Little, Working Mother and Activist, Mother of Malcolm X and Seven Siblings"), was shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.{{Cite web |date=11 June 2024 |title=Orwell Prizes 2024 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2024/06/11/253173/orwell-prizes-2024-shortlists-announced/ |access-date=24 June 2024 |publisher=Books+Publishing}} Alexandra Harris, chair of the judges, stated: "Collins fuses history and invention with utmost care and creativity. ... With a deep sense of purpose and not a hint of literary showiness, Collins brings together many voices, from eighteenth-century English letter-writers to Black rights orators, and she honours the rich Grenadian creole, now largely lost, with a new life here on the page."{{cite web |url=https://www.orwellfoundation.com/political-fiction/ocean-stirrings/#:~:text=2024%20Political%20Fiction%20Book%20prize%20finalist&text=Collins%20fuses%20history%20and%20invention,who%20came%20before%20Malcolm%20X |title=2024 Political Fiction Book prize finalist |publisher=The Orwell Foundation |date=2024 |access-date=15 October 2024}} The review by Shivanee Ramlochan in Caribbean Beat concluded: "Above all, this is a richly empathetic rendering in fiction of a real-life person whose story remained almost entirely unsung. Ocean Stirrings anchors her history before us, asking whose voices are allowed to resound."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-182/book-buzz-reviews-may-jun-2024#axzz8ojGRP04E |title=Book buzz {{!}} Reviews (May/Jun 2024)|magazine=Caribbean Beat Magazine|issue=182|date=May–June 2024|access-date=15 October 2024}}

Bibliography

=Poetry=

{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Because the Dawn Breaks |year=1985 |publisher=Karia Press |isbn=9780946918096}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Rotten Pomerack |year=1992 |publisher=Virago Press |isbn=9781853815560}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Lady in a Boat |year=2003 |publisher=Peepal Tree Press |isbn=9781900715850}}

=Novels=

{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Angel |year=1987 |publisher=Women's Press |isbn=9780704340824}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Angel |year=1998 |publisher=Seal Press |isbn=9781580050142}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=The Colour of Forgetting |year=1995 |publisher=Virago Press |isbn=9781853818929}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Ocean Stirrings: A Work of Fiction in Tribute to Louise Langdon Norton Little, Working Mother and Activist, Mother of Malcolm X and Seven Siblings |year=2023 |publisher=Peepal Tree Press |isbn=9781845235529}}

=Short stories=

{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=Rain Darling |year=1990 |publisher=Women's Press |isbn=9780704342583}}
{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=The Ladies are Upstairs |year=2011 |publisher=Peepal Tree Press |isbn=9781845231798}}

=Biographies=

{{cite book |first=Merle |last=Collins |author-mask=2 |title=The Governor's Story: The Authorised Biography of Dame Hilda Bynoe |year=2013 |publisher=Peepal Tree Press |isbn=9781845232245}}

References

External links

Betty Wilson, [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2931819 "An Interview With Merle Collins"], Callaloo, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter, 1993), pp. 94–107.
Thorunn Lonsdale, [http://jsse.revues.org/index339.html "Merle Collins - b. 1950"], Journal of the Short Story in English, pp. 299–301.
Jacqueline Bishop and Dolace Nicole McLean, [http://www.nyu.edu/calabash/vol3no2/0302053.pdf "Working out Grenada: An Interview with Merle Collins"], Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Fall–Winter 2005)
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063701/http://www.mona.uwi.edu/conferences/literatures/profiles/collins.htm "Dr. Merle Collins"], Profiles, The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.

Category:1950 births

Category:20th-century novelists

Category:20th-century poets

Category:20th-century short story writers

Category:20th-century women writers

Category:21st-century poets

Category:21st-century short story writers

Category:21st-century women writers

Category:Academics of the University of North London

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:Black British women writers

Category:Black British writers