Earl Lovelace
For the peerage, see Earl of Lovelace.
Earl Lovelace (born 13 July 1935) is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer.
Born in Toco, Trinidad and Tobago, Earl Lovelace attended Scarborough Methodist Primary School, Scarborough, Tobago (1940–47), Nelson Street Boys, R.C., Port of Spain, Trinidad (1948), and Ideal High School, Port of Spain, Trinidad (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 (1954-6) and the Ministry of Agriculture (1956–66).
Lovelace studied at Howard University, Washington, DC, from 1966 to 1967, and in 1974 he received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, where he was also Visiting Novelist. In 1980, he became a visiting writer at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He taught at Federal City College (now University of the District of Columbia), Washington, DC (1971-3), and from 1977 to 1987 he lectured in literature and creative writing at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. He was appointed Writer-in-Residence in England by the London Arts Board (1995-6), a visiting lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College, Massachusetts (1996-7), and was Distinguished Novelist in the Department of English at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington (1999–2004).
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.
Earl Lovelace has three daughters and two sons. His artist son Che Lovelace illustrated the jacket of the 1997 US edition of his novel Salt. He collaborated with his filmmaker daughter Asha Lovelace on writing the film Joebell and America, based on his short story of the same title.
Awards
- 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.
- Guggenheim fellowship, 1980.
- 1985, Jestina’s Calypso voted the most original play at the Trinidad & Tobago Drama Festival.
- 1986, grant from National Endowment for the Humanities.
- 1988, Chaconia Medal (Gold) from the government of Trinidad & Tobago.
- 1997, Best Book, Commonwealth Writers' Prize, 1997, for Salt.
- 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.
Selected works
Novels
- While Gods Are Falling, London: Collins, 1965; Chicago,IL: Regnery, 1966.
- The Schoolmaster, London: Collins, 1968.
- The Dragon Can't Dance, London: André Deutsch, 1979.
- The Wine of Astonishment, Oxford: Heinemann, Caribbean Writers Series, 1983; new 2010 edition includes CSEC specific study notes. ISBN 978-0-435-03340-8
- Salt (winner of Commonwealth Writers' Prize), London: Faber & Faber, 1996; New York: Persea Books,1997.
- Is Just a Movie, London: Faber & Faber, January 2011. ISBN 0571255671.
Short-story collection
- A Brief Conversion and Other Stories, Oxford: Heinemann, 1988.
Play collection
- Jestina's Calypso and Other Plays, Oxford: Heinemann, 1984.
Essay collection
- Growing in the Dark. Selected Essays (ed. Funso Aiyejina; San Juan, Trinidad: Lexicon Trinidad, 2003).
Plays and musicals
- The New Boss, 1962.
- My Name Is Village, produced in Port of Spain, Trinidad, at Queen's Hall, 1976.
- Pierrot Ginnard (musical drama), produced in Port of Spain, Trinidad, at Queen's Hall, 1977.
- Jestina's Calypso, produced in St Augustine, Trinidad, at the University of the West Indies, 1978.
- The Wine of Astonishment (adapted from his novel), performed in Port of Spain, Trinidad; Barbados, 1987.
- The New Hardware Store, produced at University of the West Indies, 1980. Produced in London, England, by Talawa Theatre Company, at The Arts Theatre, 1987.
- The Dragon Can't Dance (adapted from his novel), produced in Port of Spain, Trinidad, at Queen's Hall, 1986 (published in Black Plays: 2, ed. Yvonne Brewster, London: Methuen, 1989).
- The Reign of Anancy, performed in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1989.
- Joebell and America, produced in Lupinot Village, Trinidad, 1999.
Other
- Crawfie the Crapaud (for children), Longman, 1998.
- Joebell and America (film, co-written with and directed by Asha Lovelace; Trinidad: Caribbean Communications Network, premiered TV6, Trinidad, 2004).
Further reading
- Aiyejina, Funso (ed.), A Place in the World: Essays and Tributes in Honour of Earl Lovelace @ 70. University of the West Indies, Trinidad, 2008.
- Dalleo, Raphael. "Cultural Studies and the Commodified Public: Luis Rafael Sanchez'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: Unieersity of Virginia Press, 2011.
- 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 America, 2008. ISBN 9781900039918
References
Earl Lovelace - Accessed January 27, 2006
External links
On The Strand (BBC) from "Is Just a Movie":
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Lovelace, Earl |
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13 July 1935 |
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