Paulette Ramsay

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Paulette Ramsay is a Jamaican poet, translator, journalist, novelist, and academic who studies race relations in the Caribbean.

Career and writing[edit]

She received her PhD from the University of the West Indies; was promoted to professor in the university's Department of Modern Languages & Literatures in 2017; and specializes in the field of Afro-Hispanic Studies, with a particular interest in the Afro-Mexican diaspora.[1][2]

In 2003, Ramsay published a novella, Aunt Jen, a coming-of-age story told as a series of letters from a girl, Sunshine, to her absent mother.[3] It explores themes of growing up in Jamaica in the 1970s, during the early years of the country's independence.[4] In a review, Maureen Warner-Lewis notes Ramsay's "charmingly revelatory" narrative, and notes her use of code-switching in her literary style.[5]

Ramsay has published three collections of free verse poems. Reviewer Barbara Collash describes the first volume, Under Basil Leaves (2010), as displaying a "decidedly female perspective, female sensibility," and says they "constitute a fresh poetic retelling of the black tragic."[6]

She has also published or contributed to numerous textbooks, preparatory texts for the CAPE and CSEC exams, and academic texts.

Honours[edit]

In 2014, Ramsay received the National Order of Merit from the government of France, in the rank of Chevalier.[7]

In 2018, she received the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs (FIPA) Award of the Century for Outstanding Scholarship in Literary and Language Studies and Creative Writing.[8]

Selected works[edit]

Fiction
  • Aunt Jen (2003; novella)
Poetry
  • Under Basil Leaves (2010)[6]
  • October Afternoon (2012)
  • Star Apple Blue and Avocado Green (2016)
Nonfiction
  • Chevere! (2008; in Spanish; with Anne-Maria Bankay, Ingrid Kemchand, and Elaine Watson-Grant)
  • Blooming With The Pouis: Critical Thinking, Reading And Writing Across The Curriculum (2009)
  • Afro-Mexican Constructions of Diaspora, Gender, Identity and Nation (2016)[2]
  • The Afro-Hispanic Readers and Anthology (2018; editor)
Translations

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Dr. Paulette Ramsay promoted to Professor". University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b Liu, Jackson (21 April 2017). "Paulette Ramsay wants to highlight the importance of the Afro-Mexican diaspora". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  3. ^ Forbes, Curdella (June 2004). "Book reviews". Caribbean Quarterly. 50 (2): 81–84. doi:10.1080/00086495.2004.11672234. JSTOR 40654454. S2CID 218622550.
  4. ^ Gray, Paige (2015). "'A Different Sunshine': Writing Jamaican National Identity through a Girl's Coming-of-Age Story in Paulette Ramsay's 'Aunt Jen'". Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature. 53 (2): 12–20. doi:10.1353/bkb.2015.0042. S2CID 142260051.
  5. ^ Warner-Lewis, Maureen (November 2002). "Book review". Journal of West Indian Literature. 11 (2): 80–85. JSTOR 23019828.
  6. ^ a b Collash, Barbara (12 June 2011). "Ramsay Explores Life 'Under Basil Leaves'". The Gleaner. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Corporate Sightings". The Gleaner. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Professor Paulette Ramsay Receives FIPA International Centennial Writing Award". University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2020.

Further reading[edit]

  • Ramsay, Paulette; Walker, Carrie J. (November 2014). "Out Of Many, One Voice: An Interview with Paulette Ramsay". Journal of West Indian Literature. 22 (2): 42–58. JSTOR 24615459.
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