Dorothea Smartt FRSL (born 1963) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-born poet of Barbadian descent.

Biography

The daughter of Caribbean immigrants from Barbados, Dorothea Smartt was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England, and grew up there. She earned a BA degree in Social Sciences from

South Bank Polytechnic London South Bank University (LSBU) is a public university in Elephant and Castle, London. It is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded in 1892 as the Borough Po ...

and an MA in Anthropology from Hunter College ( CUNY). Smartt was poet in residence at

Brixton Market Brixton Market comprises a street market in the centre of Brixton, south London, and the adjacent covered market areas in nearby arcades Reliance Arcade, Market Row and Granville Arcade (recently rebranded as 'Brixton Village'). The market sel ...

and attached live artist at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

. She has lectured on creative arts at

Birkbeck College, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £109 ...

, and

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. She has been poetry editor for ''Sable LitMag'' and guest writer at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Miami-Dade County. Founded in 1965, the school opened its doors to students in 1972. FIU has grown to become the third-largest university in Florid ...

and Oberlin College. Her work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, including ''Bittersweet'' (

Women's Press The Women's Press was a feminist publishing company established in London in 1977. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, the Women's Press was a highly visible presence, publishing feminist literature. Founding In 1977, Stephanie Dowrick cofou ...

, 1998), ''The Fire People'' (

Payback Press The Payback Press was a specialist imprint of Canongate Books devoted to (initially) reprints of classic black crime novels, which later branched out into contemporary black fiction. Notable authors included Chester Himes and Clarence Cooper Jr ...

, 1998), ''Mythic Women/Real Women'' ( Faber, 2000), ''IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain'' (edited by Kadija George and Courttia Newland, 2000), ''A Storm Between Fingers'' ( Flipped Eye, 2007) and ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'' (edited by Margaret Busby, Myriad Editions, 2019).Dorothea Smartt page
at Peepal Tree Press. Smart's multi-media play, ''Fallout'' toured primary schools in and around London. She also created and performed the solo work ''Medusa'', which incorporates poetry and visuals. Her poetry collections include ''Connecting Medium'' (2001) and, in 2008, ''Ship Shape'', which is an A-Level English Literature title and has been described as "a revisionist work that transforms a legacy of silencing into an exercise of counter-memory, engaging with and expanding its tradition in Caribbean arts." In 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature."Myriad authors awarded at the Royal Society of Literature summer party"
Myriad Editions.

Selected works

* ''Fallout'', play (2000) * ''Connecting Medium'', poetry (

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...

, 2001) * ''Samboo's Grave/Bilal's Grave'', poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2007) * ''Ship Shape'', poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2008) * ''Reader, I Married Him & Other Queer Goings-On'', poetry (Peepal Tree Press, 2014)

References

External links

Dorothea Smartt website

"Dorothea Smartt"
at Peepal Tree Press
"Interview with Dorothea Smartt, Brit born Bajan literary activist, live artist & poet"
Black Looks, 22 May 2014
"A Sense of Denial - Dorothea Smartt"
YouTube video, 2011 * A small selection of Dorothea Smartt´s poems in audio format, and read by her, is available vi
The Poetry Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smartt, Dorothea 1963 births Living people 20th-century Barbadian women writers 21st-century Barbadian women writers 21st-century English poets 21st-century English women writers Barbadian women poets Barbadian women writers Black British women writers Date of birth missing (living people) English people of Barbadian descent English women poets Writers from London