Earl Lovelace

Born in Toco, Trinidad and Tobago, Earl Lovelace was sent to live with his grandparents in Tobago at a very young age, but rejoined his family in Toco when he was 11 years old. His family later moved to Belmont, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and then Morvant.[3] Lovelace attended Scarborough Methodist Primary School, Scarborough, Tobago (1940–47), Nelson Street Boys' R.C., Port of Spain (1948), and Ideal High School, Port of Spain (1948–53, where he sat the Cambridge School Certificate).

He worked at the Trinidad Guardian as a proofreader from 1953 to 1954, and then for the Department of Forestry (1954–56) and the Ministry of Agriculture (1956–66). He began writing while stationed in the village of Valencia as a forest ranger.[3]

In 1962 his first novel, While Gods Are Falling, won the Trinidad and Tobago Independence literary competition sponsored by British Petroleum (BP).

From 1966 to 1967, Lovelace studied at Howard University, Washington, DC, and in 1974 he received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, where he was also Visiting Novelist.

He taught at Federal City College (now University of the District of Columbia), Washington, DC (1971–73), and from 1977 to 1987 he lectured in literature and creative writing at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. Winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980, he spent the year as a visiting writer at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.[4]

He was appointed Writer-in-Residence in England by the London Arts Board (1995–96), a visiting lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College, Massachusetts (1996–97), and was Distinguished Novelist in the Department of English at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington (1999–2004).

Lovelace was Trinidad and Tobago's artistic director for Carifesta, the Caribbean Festival of Arts, which was held in the country in 1992, 1995 and 2006.[5][6][7]

He is a columnist for the Trinidad Express, and has contributed to a number of periodicals, including Voices, South, and Wasafiri. Based in Trinidad, while teaching and touring various countries, he was appointed to the Board of Governors of the University of Trinidad and Tobago in 2005, the year his 70th birthday was honoured with a conference and celebrations at the University of the West Indies. He is the president of the Association of Caribbean Writers.[8][9]

Lovelace is the subject of a 2014 documentary film by Funso Aiyejina entitled A Writer In His Place.[10][11]

In July 2015, to mark his 80th birthday, Lovelace was honoured by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest with celebrations in Tobago, including film screenings.[12]

He is the subject of a 2017 biography by Funso Aiyejina.[13][14]

When Lovelace's first novel, While Gods Are Falling, was published in 1965, C. L. R. James hailed "a new type of writer, a new type of prose, a different type of work".[15] Lovelace went on to publish five further novels, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize-winning Salt (1996) and, most recently, Is Just a Movie, winner of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.[16] In 1986, he published the novel The Wine of Astonishment, which deals with the struggle of a Spiritual Baptist community, from the passing of the prohibition ordinance until the ban. He has also written plays, short stories, essays, and a children's book.

The Alma Jordan Library at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, holds the Earl Lovelace manuscripts. The papers mainly consists of typed and handwritten notes, drafts and manuscripts of Lovelace's published output — novels, plays and short stories. Manuscripts of the following novels are included: The Schoolmaster; The Dragon Can't Dance; While Gods are Falling; The Wine of Astonishment; Salt. The collection also includes some unpublished work including poetry.[17]

His artist son Che Lovelace illustrated the jacket of the 1997 US edition of his novel Salt.[18] Earl Lovelace has collaborated with his filmmaker daughter Asha Lovelace on projects including writing the 2004 feature film Joebell and America,[19] based on his short story of the same title.[20]

• 1963, British Petroleum Independence Award, 1963, for While Gods Are Falling.
• 1966, Pegasus Literary Award, for outstanding contributions to the arts in Trinidad and Tobago.
• 1977, awards for best play and best music for Pierrot Ginnard.
• 1980, Guggenheim fellowship.
• 1985, Jestina’s Calypso voted the most original play at the Trinidad & Tobago Drama Festival.
• 1986, National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
• 1988, Chaconia Medal (Gold) from the government of Trinidad & Tobago.
• 1997, Best Book, Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book), 1997, for Salt.[21]
• 1998, Shortlist, International Dublin Literary Award for Salt.[22]
• 2002, Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, 2002.
• 2011, Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature, from Regional Council of Guadeloupe, for Is Just a Movie.[23][24]
• 2012, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Is Just a Movie (winner of Fiction category and overall winner).[25][26]
• 2012, Caribbean-Canadian Literary Award.[27][28]
• 2012, Lifetime Literary Award from the National Library and Information System (Nalis), Trinidad.[29]
• 2018, Presidents Award, St. Martin Book Fair.[30]

•Caribbean literature •Postcolonial literature

• Aiyejina, Funso, Earl Lovelace (Caribbean Biography Series, University of the West Indies Press, 2017, ISBN 978-976-640-627-1.

• Aiyejina, Funso (ed.), A Place in the World: Essays and Tributes in Honour of Earl Lovelace @ 70. University of the West Indies, Trinidad, 2008.
• Aiyejina, Funso. "Salt: A Complex Tapestry", Trinidad and Tobago Review 18.10-12 (1996): 13-16.
• Dalleo, Raphael. "Cultural Studies and the Commodified Public: Luis Rafael Sánchez's La guaracha del Macho Camacho and Earl Lovelace's The Dragon Can't Dance", Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere: From the Plantation to the Postcolonial, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011.
• Hodge, Merle, "The Language of Earl Lovelace", in Anthurium, Vol. 4, Issue 2, Fall 2006.
• Raja, Masood Ashraf. "We Is All People: The Marginalized East-Indian and the Economy of Difference in Lovelace's The Dragon Can't Dance". Caribbean Studies. 34 (1): 111–130. 2006.
• Schwarz, Bill (ed.), Caribbean Literature after Independence: The Case of Earl Lovelace. London: Institute for the Study of the Americas, 2008. ISBN 978-1-900039-91-8
• Thomas, H. Nigel. "From ‘Freedom’ to ‘Liberation’: An Interview with Earl Lovelace", World Literature Written in English, 31.1 (1991): 8–20.

• Trinidadian Letters: Trinidadian Literary Culture at the Wayback Machine (archived 6 April 2003) (26 September 2001): Chezia B. Thompson, "Lovelace"; Brian Pastoor, "Poetry of Paradox in Earl Lovelace's The Dragon Can't Dance"; Funso Aiyejina, "An Intertextual Critical Approach to Salt by Earl Lovelace"; Edith Perez Sisto, Interview with Earl Lovelace.
• Kelly Hewson, "An Interview with Earl Lovelace, June 2003", Postcolonial Text, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2004).
• Nadia Indra Johnson, "Earl Lovelace: Selected Bibliography", Anthurium, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Fall 2006.
• "Earl Lovelace", British Council, Literature. Accessed 27 January 2006.
• The Strand on Is Just a Movie, BBC World Service, 4 January 2011.
• “We are on the verge of listening” - Earl Lovelace talks to B.C. Pires, Caribbean Review of Books, January 2011.
• Sophie Megan Harris, "An Interview with Earl Lovelace" (14 and 24 June 2011), SX Salon, Small Axe, 28 May 2012.
• Raquel Puig, "The Meandering Mind and the Film Image: Interview with Earl Lovelace", Sargasso: Celebrating Caribbean Voices 2010-2011, Special Issue.
• J. K. Fowler, "PEN 2013 Workshop: Earl Lovelace on Reclaiming Rebellion", The Mantle, 1 May 2013.
• Patricia J. Saunders, "The Meeting Place of Creole Culture: A Conversation with Earl Lovelace". Calabash, New York University.
• Anderson Tepper, "A Badjohn in Harlem: An Afternoon with Earl Lovelace", The Paris Review, 11 April 2012.