Neville Dawes
{{Short description|Jamaican writer (1926–1984)}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Neville Augustus Dawes
| birth_date = 16 June 1926
| birth_place = Warri, Nigeria
| death_date = {{death date and age|13 May 1984|16 June 1926|df=y}}
| occupation = Novelist and poet
| education = Jamaica College
| alma_mater = Oriel College, Oxford
| children = Kwame Dawes (son)
| years_active =
| awards =
}}
Neville Dawes (16 June 1926 – 13 May 1984) was a novelist and poet born in Nigeria of Jamaican parentage. He was the father of poet and editor Kwame Dawes.
Biography
Neville Augustus Dawes was born in Warri, Nigeria, to Jamaican parents Augustus Dawes (a Baptist missionary and teacher) and his wife Laura,[https://books.google.com/books?id=NErz9DR1AxkC&dq=%22neville+dawes%22+1926-1984&pg=PA141 "Neville Dawes"], in Daryl Cumber Dance (ed.), Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, Greenwood Press, pp. 141–. and was raised in rural Jamaica,[https://www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/neville-dawes "Neville Dawes"], Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 November 2024. where the family returned when he was three years old.Barrie Davies, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nGfMAgAAQBAJ&dq=Neville+dawes+okyeame&pg=PA346 "Dawes, Neville"], in Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds), Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Routledge, 2004, p. 346. In 1938, he won a scholarship to Jamaica College and subsequently went to Oriel College, Oxford University, where he read English."Dawes, Neville", in Michael Hughes, A Companion to West Indian Literature, Collins, 1979, p. 39. After graduating, he went to teach at Calabar High School in Kingston, Jamaica.
Returning to West Africa in 1956, he took up a teaching post at Kumasi Institute of Technology in Ghana. He was subsequently a lecturer in English at the University of Ghana (1960–70). In 1962, he and his Ghanaian wife Sophia, an artist and social worker, had a son Kwame.Roy Seeger, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zVHGBwAAQBAJ&dq=Sophia+Dawes%22+artist+and+social+worker&pg=PT94 "Dawes, Kwame"], in Tom Mack (ed.), The South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to South Carolina Writers, University of South Carolina Press, 30 January 2014. In 1971, Dawes returned with his family to Jamaica, where he became the executive director of the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston.
He published two novels (The Last Enchantment and Interim) and a poetry collection, as well as short stories and essays, some of which were broadcast on the BBC radio programme Caribbean Voices.[https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/fugue-and-other-writings "Fugue and Other Writings" page] at Peepal Tree Press. Retrieved 23 November 2024. His poetry was also published in Caribbean literary journals, including Bim, and he was one of the editors of Okyeame, journal of the Ghana Society of Writers.
A collection on his work entitled Fugue and Other Writings was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2012, including poems, short stories, autobiographical writing and critical writing.
Bibliography
- Poems — In Sepia (1958)
- The Last Enchantment (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1960; Peepal Tree Press, 2009, {{ISBN|9781845231170}})
- Prolegomena to Caribbean Literature (Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1977)
- Interim (Kingston: Institute of Jamaica, 1978)
- Fugue and Other Writings (Peepal Tree Press, 2012, {{ISBN|9781845231095}})
Criticism and further reading
- Edward Brathwaite, Review of The Last Enchantment, in Bim, vol. 9, no. 33 (July–December 1961), pp. 74–5.
- Edward Brathwaite, "Roots", in Bim, vol. 10, no. 37 (July/December 1963), pp. 10–21.
- George Lamming, "The Last Enchantment" (review), in Race, vol. 2, no. 2 (May 1961), p. 92.
- Basil McFarlane, "Jamaican Novel: A Review of The Last Enchantment", in Jamaica Journal, vol. 9, nos 2 & 3 (1975), pp. 51–2.
- Gerald Moore, The Chosen Tongue: English Writing in the Tropical World (1969), Longman.
References
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Category:20th-century Jamaican novelists
Category:20th-century Jamaican poets
Category:20th-century Jamaican male writers
Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
Category:Jamaican male novelists