Joan Riley (born 26 May 1958)Joan Riley overview
, Orlando. is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

writer. Her 1985 debut novel ''The Unbelonging'' made her "the first Afro-Caribbean woman author to write about the experiences of Blacks in England".

Biography

Joan Riley was born in Hopewell, Richmond, St. Mary, Jamaica, the youngest of eight children (six girls and two boys),"Joan Riley"
in

Pamela Mordecai Pamela Claire Mordecai (born 1942) is a Jamaican-born poet, novelist, short story writer, scholar and anthologist who lives in Canada. Biography Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she attended high school in Jamaica, and Newton College of the Sacred ...

(ed.), ''Her True-True Name'', Heinemann, 1989, p. 66. and was raised by her father after her mother died in childbirth."Joan Riley with Aamer Hussein"
in

Susheila Nasta Susheila Nasta, MBE, Hon. FRSL (born 1953), is a British critic, editor, academic and literary activist. She is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literatures at Queen Mary University of London, and founding editor of ''Wasafiri'', the UK's lea ...

(ed.), ''Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk'', Routledge, 2004, p. 93. She received her early education on that island before migrating in 1976 to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. There she studied social work at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. She has worked at a drugs advisory agency and wrote about the experiences of Caribbean women. Riley is the author of four novels; her first, ''The Unbelonging'', published in 1985, is considered the first by a woman about the black experience in Britain. Riley was awarded the ''Voice'' award for her work in 1992, and the

MIND The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

prize in 1993 for ''A Kindness to the Children''. She has been featured in such anthologies as ''

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 Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

, 1992)Margaret Busby (ed.), ''Daughters of Africa'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 909–14. and ''Her True-True Name'' (edited by

, 1989). Riley co-edited with Briar Wood ''Leave to Stay: Stories of Exile and Belonging'' (Virago, 1996), a collection of fiction and poetry by writers from India, the Caribbean, China, South Africa, the USSR, Canada, Australia and Pakistan, including

Sujata Bhatt Sujata Bhatt (born 6 May 1956) is an Indian poet. Life and career Sujata Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and brought up in Pune until 1968, when she immigrated to United States with her family. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa, ...

Fred D'Aguiar Fred D'Aguiar (born 2 February 1960) is a British-Guyanese poet, novelist, and playwright. He is currently Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Life Fred D'Aguiar was born in London, England, in 1960 t ...

Michael Donaghy Michael Donaghy (May 24, 1954 – September 16, 2004) was a New York City poet and musician, who lived in London from 1985. Life and career Donaghy was born into an Irish family and grew up with his sister Patricia in the Bronx, New York, lo ...

Jane Duran Jane Duran, born , is a Spanish-American poet, born in Cuba whilst her father was working as a diplomat in the country. Background Duran was born in Cuba to an American mother and a Spanish father, Gustavo Durán, who had fought with the Republ ...

, Michael Hoffman,

Aamer Hussein Aamer Hussein (born 8 April 1955, Karachi) is a Pakistani critic Biography
Aamer Hussein official website. ...

Mimi Khalvati Mimi Khalvati (born 28 April 1944) is an Iranian-born British poet. Life and career She was born in Tehran, Iran on 28 April 1944. She grew up on the Isle of Wight and was educated in Switzerland at the University of Neuchâtel, and in London ...

, Adam Lively,

Sindiwe Magona Sindiwe Magona (born 27 August 1943) is a South African writer. Early life Magona is a native of the former Transkei region, South Africa. She grew up in Gugulethu, a Cape Town township, and worked as a domestic while completing her secondary ed ...

Bharati Mukherjee Bharati Mukherjee (July 27, 1940 – January 28, 2017) was an Indian American-Canadian writer and professor emerita in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the author of a number of novels and short story ...

Hanan al-Shaykh Hanan al-Shaykh ( ar, حنان الشيخ; born 12 November 1945, Beirut) is a Lebanese author of contemporary literature. Biography Hanan al-Shaykh was born Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945, into a strict Shi'a family. Her father and brother exerte ...

, Janice Shinebourne and

Zinovy Zinik use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates = ...

Bibliography

Novels * ''The Unbelonging'' (London: The Women's Press, 1985) * ''Waiting in the Twilight'' (London: The Women's Press, 1987) * ''Romance'' (London: The Women's Press, 1988; new edition 1997) * ''A Kindness to the Children'' (London: The Women's Press, 1992)

References

External links

Joan Riley by Donald MacLellan

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

"Joan Riley"
Black British Women Writers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Joan 1958 births 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century Jamaican novelists Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Sussex Black British women writers English women novelists Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Living people People from Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica Jamaican women novelists

Biography

Bibliography

Further reading

References

External links