Jean Buffong (born 1943) is a Grenadian-British novelist and poet.

Life

Born in

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

, Buffong settled in the United Kingdom and worked as a lawyer. She started writing fiction in her early forties. Her work consists of poetry, short stories, novels and plays, and is centred around her Grenadian childhood. ''Under the Silk Cotton Tree'' (1992) is set in Grenada, though family connections between Grenada and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

bring out the interconnectedness of the Caribbean and the importance of migration in everyday life. Buffong has been welfare officer for the West Indian Standing Conference, an active member of the Caribbean Women Writers' Alliance and the Chairperson of the Ananse Society. She divides her time between

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

The Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

Works

* (with Nellie Payne) ''Jump-up-and-kiss-me: two stories of Grenada''. London:

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 cofo ...

, 1990. * (ed. with Mandla Langa, Diana Mead and Chris Searle) ''Just a breath away: a national anthology of poetry by children and young people in Britain''. heffield Local Authorities Against Apartheid, 1991. * ''Under the silk cotton tree: a novel''. London: Women's Press, 1992. * ''Snowflakes in the sun''. London: Women's Press, 1995. * (ed. with Maureen Roberts and Tony La Mothe) ''Voices in a new dawn: Grenadian writers' stories, essays and poetry''. London: Redemption Press, 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffong, Jean 1943 births Living people Grenadian novelists Grenadian poets Grenadian women writers Grenadian women poets Grenadian emigrants to the United Kingdom