Sapphire (author)

{{Infobox person

|name = Sapphire

|image = Sapphire the Author Headshot.png

|birth_name = Ramona Lofton

|caption = Sapphire in New York City, 2021

|birth_date =

|birth_place = Fort Ord, California, U.S.

|occupation = Author and performance poet

|education = City College of San Francisco
City College of New York (BA)
Brooklyn College (MFA)

|notable works = Push (1996)

}}

Ramona Lofton, better known by her pen name Sapphire, is an American author and performance poet.

Early life

Ramona Lofton was born in Fort Ord, California,Pallardy, Richard, [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sapphire-American-author "Sapphire"], Encyclopedia Britannica. one of four children of an Army couple who relocated within the United States and abroad. After a disagreement concerning where the family would settle, her parents separated, with Lofton's mother "kind of abandoning them".{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/08/06/sapphires-raw-gem/fd1a723c-f32f-4ba4-ad49-6faaaf2383ab/|last=Powers|first=William|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Sapphire's Raw Gem|date=August 6, 1996}}

Lofton dropped out of high school and moved to San Francisco, where she attained a GED and enrolled at the City College of San Francisco before dropping out to become a "hippie".{{cite web|url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/166261/Lofton%2c%20Ramona%20%28Sapphire%29.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|title=Ramona Lofton (Sapphire)|website=Voices from the Gaps|publisher=University of Minnesota|first=Shante’ L. D. |last=Harrell|author2= Leticia M. Guice|author3=Nanette Ray|date=2004|access-date=October 12, 2023}} In the mid-1970s Lofton attended the City College of New York and obtained an MFA degree at Brooklyn College. Lofton held various jobs before starting her writing career, working as a performance artist as well as a teacher of reading and writing.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

Career

Lofton moved to New York City in 1977 and became heavily involved with poetry. She also became a member of a gay organization named United Lesbians of Color for Change Inc. She wrote, performed and eventually published her poetry during the height of the Slam Poetry movement in New York. Lofton took the name "Sapphire" because of its one-time cultural association with the image of a "belligerent Black woman," and also because she said she could more easily picture that name on a book cover than her birth name.{{cite news | last = Marvel | first=Mark | title = Sapphire's big push – Sapphire's novel, 'Push' – Interview|website=BNET|date = June 1996 | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_n6_v26/ai_18450196| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080310212513/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_n6_v26/ai_18450196| url-status = dead| archive-date = March 10, 2008|accessdate = January 15, 2009}}

Sapphire self-published the collection of poems Meditations on the Rainbow in 1987.{{Cite journal

| last = Clarke

| first = Cheryl

| title = An Identity of One's Own

| journal = Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review

| volume = 3

| issue = 4

| pages = 37

| date = Fall 1996

}}, also available in

{{Cite book

| last = Schneider

| first = Kim

| title = The Best of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review

| publisher = Temple University Press

| year = 1997

| isbn = 1-56639-596-8

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/bestofharvardgay00rich

}}

As Cheryl Clarke notes, Sapphire's 1994 book of poems, American Dreams is often erroneously referred to as her first book. One critic referred to it as "one of the strongest debut collections of the 1990s".

Her first novel, Push, was unpublished before being discovered by literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, whose interest created demand and eventually led to a bidding war. Sapphire submitted the first 100 pages of Push to a publisher auction in 1995 and the highest bidder offered her $500,000 to finish the novel. The book was published in 1996 by Vintage Publishing and has since sold hundreds of thousands of copies.[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23794410-how-author-created-film-character-precious-through-her-own-sexual-abuse.do Interview with David Cohen, This is London, 13 January 2010]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100404020719/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23794410-how-author-created-film-character-precious-through-her-own-sexual-abuse.do |date= April 4, 2010 }}. Sapphire noted in an interview with William Powers that "she noticed Push for sale in one of the Penn Station bookstores, and that moment it struck her she was no longer a creature of the tiny world of art magazines and homeless shelters from which she came". The novel brought Sapphire praise and much controversy for its graphic account of a young woman growing up in a cycle of incest and abuse.

A film based on her novel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. It was renamed Precious to avoid confusion with the 2009 action film Push.{{Cite news|last = Siegel|first = Tatiana|title = When 'Push' comes to shove|newspaper = Variety|date = February 2, 2009|url= https://www.variety.com/article/VR1118000415.html?categoryid=13&cs=1}} The cast included Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, who won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Precious' mother Mary, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz.{{cite web|url=http://travel.gay.com/2009/01/2.html |title=2009 Sundance Q Preview |access-date=January 15, 2009 |last=Olson |first=Jenni |author-link=Jenni Olson |date=January 13, 2009 |publisher=gay.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117115556/http://travel.gay.com/2009/01/2.html |archivedate=January 17, 2009 }} Sapphire herself appears briefly in the film as a daycare worker.

In 2011, she released The Kid, a sequel to Push about Precious's son, Abdul.{{cite web| url = https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2011-jul-03-la-ca-sapphire-20110703-story.html| first=Carolyn|last=Kellogg|title='The Kid' by Sapphire| website=Los Angeles Times| date=July 3, 2011|accessdate=March 26, 2021}} Sapphire admitted that part of the reason she decided to continue the story was because of the encouragement and interest Push received in scholarly conversations.{{cite journal| last1 = Wilson| first1 = Marq| title = "A Push out of Chaos": An Interview with Sapphire| journal = MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.| date = 2012| volume = 37| issue = 4| pages = 31–39| url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/491119| access-date = March 8, 2018}}

Sapphire's writing was the subject of an academic symposium at Arizona State University in 2007.{{cite conference|title=PUSHing Boundaries, PUSHing Art: A Symposium on the Works of Sapphire |date=February 28, 2007 |location=Tempe, Arizona |publisher=Arizona State University|url=http://english.clas.asu.edu/sapphire/ |access-date=January 15, 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202082400/http://english.clas.asu.edu/sapphire/ |archivedate=February 2, 2009 }} In 2009 she was the recipient of a Fellow Award in Literature from United States Artists.[http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public2/Home/index.cfm United States Artists Official Website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101110032536/http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public2/Home/index.cfm |date=November 10, 2010 }}

Sapphire has focused on bringing to light the parts of life that do not receive attention. In her words:{{blockquote|A major focus of my art has been my determination to reconnect to the mainstream of human life a segment of humanity that has been cast off and made invisible. I have brought into the public gaze women who have been marginalized by sexual abuse, poverty, and their blackness. Through art I have sought to center them in the world.{{cite journal| last1 = McNeil| first1 = Elizabeth| last2 =Lester| first2 = Neal| last3 =Fulton| first3 =DoVeanna| last4 = Myles| first4 = Lynette| title = 'Going After Something Else' Sapphire on the Evolution from PUSH to Precious and The Kid | journal = Callaloo| date = 2014| volume = 37| issue = 2| pages = 352–357| doi = 10.1353/cal.2014.0073| s2cid = 162338562| url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/544938| accessdate = March 8, 2018}}}}

Sapphire's work is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.{{cite web|url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/magazine/books-busby-anthology-evokes-black-pride-1427632|title=BOOKS: Busby anthology evokes black pride|first=Kari|last=Mutu|work=The East African|date=September 20, 2019}}

Personal life

Sapphire lives in New York City. She is bisexual.{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/how-author-created-film-character-precious-through-her-own-sexual-abuse-6735992.html|title=How author created film character Precious through her own sexual abuse|date=January 13, 2010|work=Evening Standard}} Like her character Precious, Sapphire was sexually abused at the age of eight by her father.

Works

Novels

Push (1996)
The Kid (2011)

Poetry

Meditations on the Rainbow: Poetry (1987)
American Dreams (1994)
Black Wings & Blind Angels: Poems (1999)[http://www.afterellen.com/books/2008/11/acrossthepage?page=0%2C1 Across the Page: Bisexual Literature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202090519/http://www.afterellen.com/books/2008/11/acrossthepage?page=0%2C1 |date=February 2, 2009 }}, Afterellen.com, Heather Aimee O..., November 23, 2008.

References

External links

[http://360.rollins.edu/arts-and-culture/qa-with-sapphire An Interview with Sapphire at Rollins College (February 2015)]
[http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/07/author_sapphire_why_the_kid_isnt_a_sequel_to_precious.html Sapphire: The Interview] on [The Root (July 2011)]

Category:20th-century African-American women writers

Category:20th-century African-American writers

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American poets

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers

Category:21st-century African-American women writers

Category:21st-century African-American writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American poets

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers