Earl Lovelace
Encyclopedia
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.
On The Strand (BBC) from "Is Just a Movie":
Earl of Lovelace
Earl of Lovelace is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1838 for William King-Noel, 8th Baron King. The King family descends from Jerome King, a grocer, of Exeter, and his wife Anne, daughter of Peter Locke, nephew of the philosopher John Locke...
.
Earl Lovelace (born 13 July 1935) is a Trinidadian
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
novelist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, and short story writer.
Born in Toco
Toco
Toco is the most northeasterly village on the island of Trinidad in the County of Saint David at the point where the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet. Tobago lies only some 35 kilometers to the northeast which renders Toco the closest point in Trinidad to the sister island. The name Toco...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, 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
Trinidad Guardian
The T&T Guardian is the oldest daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. Founded in 1917, the Guardian is published by the Trinidad Publishing Company. The newspaper was published as a broadsheet since inception but changed to tabloid format, known as the "G-sized Guardian", in November 2002...
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
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, Washington, DC, from 1966 to 1967, and in 1974 he received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Baltimore, MD, where he was also Visiting Novelist. In 1980, he became a visiting writer at the International Writing Program
International Writing Program
The International Writing Program is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted over 1,100 emerging and established poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and journalists from more than 120 countries...
at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. He taught at Federal City College (now University of the District of Columbia
University of the District of Columbia
The University of the District of Columbia is a historically black, public university located in Washington, D.C. UDC is one of only a few urban land-grant universities in the country and a member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
), Washington, DC (1971-3), and from 1977 to 1987 he lectured in literature and creative writing at the University of the West Indies
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
at St Augustine
Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
St. Augustine, a town on the East-West Corridor of Trinidad and Tobago, is the site of one of the four campuses of the University of the West Indies. It is located east of Curepe and west of Tunapuna....
. 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
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...
, 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
University of Trinidad and Tobago
The University of Trinidad and Tobago, also known as UTT, is a state owned university in Trinidad and Tobago established in 2004. Its main campus, currently under construction, will be located at Wallerfield in Trinidad...
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 PetroleumBPBP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
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 fellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 1980. - 1985, Jestina’s Calypso voted the most original play at the Trinidad & Tobago Drama Festival.
- 1986, grant from National Endowment for the HumanitiesNational Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
. - 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 IndiesUniversity of the West IndiesThe University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
, St Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, 2002. - 2011, Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature, from Regional Council of Guadeloupe, for Is Just a Movie.
Novels
- While Gods Are Falling, London: Collins, 1965; Chicago,IL: Regnery, 1966.
- The Schoolmaster, London: Collins, 1968.
- The Dragon Can't DanceThe Dragon Can't DanceThe Dragon Can't Dance is a novel by Trinidadian author Earl Lovelace, set in a slum in Port of Spain. The novel is centered around the life of Aldrick Prospect, a man who spend the entire year recreating his dragon costume for Carnival...
, 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-10: 0571255671.
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 SpainPort of SpainPort of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...
, 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 AshrafMasood Ashraf RajaOriginally from Pakistan, Dr. Masood Ashraf Raja is an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Literature and Theory at the University of North Texas and the editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies, a journal that he founded in 2009...
. - Schwarz, Bill (ed.), Caribbean Literature after Independence: The Case of Earl Lovelace. London: Institute for the Study of the America, 2008. ISBN 9781900039918
External links
- Trinidadian Letters: Trinidadian Literary Culture (September 26, 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, "Edith Perez Sisto Talks with Earl Lovelace."
- http://scholar.library.miami.edu/anthurium/volume_4/issue_2/johnson-bibliography.html
- http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth63
On The Strand (BBC) from "Is Just a Movie":
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d3bhw