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 The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

(UCLA).

Life

Fred D'Aguiar 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, in 1960 to Guyanese parents, Malcolm Frederick D'Aguiar and Kathleen Agatha Messiah. In 1962 he was taken to

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, living there with his grandmother until 1972, when he returned to England at the age of 12. D'Aguiar trained as a psychiatric nurse before reading African and Caribbean Studies at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

, graduating in 1985. On graduating he applied for a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * '' Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. al ...

on the Guyanese author Wilson Harris at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

, but – after winning two writers-in-residency positions, at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

and the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(where he was the Judith E. Wilson Fellow from 1989 to 1990) – his PhD studies "receded from ismind" and he began to focus all of his energies on creative writing. In 1994, D'Aguiar moved to the United States to take up a Visiting Writer position at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (although the county seat ...

(1992–94). Since then, he has taught at

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ; officially the City of Lewiston, Maine) is List of cities in Maine, the second largest city in Maine and the most central city in Androscoggin County, Maine, Androscoggin County. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, August ...

(Assistant Professor, 1994–95) and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

where he held the position of Professor of English and

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

. In 2003 he took up the position of Professor of English and Co-Director of the

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

. In the fall of 2015, he became a Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, which post ended in 2019.

Poetry, novels and plays

Poetry

D'Aguiar's first collection of poetry, ''Mama Dot'' (1985), was published to much acclaim. It centres on an " archetypal" grandmother figure, Mama Dot, and was notable for its fusion of standard English and

Nation language "Nation language" is the term coined by scholar and poet Kamau Brathwaite McArthur, Tom,"Nation language" ''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', 1998. and now commonly preferred to describe the work of writers from the Caribbean and t ...

. Along with his 1989 collection ''Airy Hall'' (named after the village in Guyana where D'Aguiar spent his childhood), ''Mama Dot'' won the Guyana Poetry Prize. Where D'Aguiar's first two poetry collections were set in Guyana, his third – ''British Subjects'' (1993) – explores the experiences of peoples of the West Indian diaspora in London. London was also the focus of another long poem, ''Sweet Thames'', which was broadcast as part of the BBC "Worlds on Film" series on 3 July 1992 and won the Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Award. After turning to writing novels rather than poetry for a period of time, D'Aguiar returned to the poetic mode in 1998, publishing ''Bill of Rights'' (1998): a long narrative poem about the

Jonestown The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U.S.–based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationall ...

massacre in Guyana in 1979, which is told in Guyanese versions of English, fusing patois, Creole and Nation Language with the standard vernacular. It was shortlisted for the 1998

T. S. Eliot Prize The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize that was, for many years, awarded by the Poetry Book Society (UK) to "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Priz ...

. ''Bill of Rights'' was followed by another narrative poem, ''Bloodlines'' (2000), which tells the story of a black slave and her white lover. His 2009 collection of poetry, ''Continental Shelf'', centres on a response to the Virginia Tech Massacre in which 32 people were killed by a student in 2007. It was a finalist for the 2009

Novels

D'Aguiar's first novel, ''The Longest Memory'' (1994), tells the story of Whitechapel, a slave on an eighteenth-century Virginia plantation. The book won both the

David Higham Prize for Fiction The David Higham Prize for Fiction was inaugurated in 1975 to mark the 80th birthday of David Higham, literary agent, and was awarded annually to a citizen of the Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland, Pakistan, or South Africa for a first novel or boo ...

and the Whitbread First Novel Award. It was adapted for television and televised by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in the UK. Returning to themes he had earlier developed in ''British Subjects'', D'Aguiar's 1996 novel, ''Dear Future'', explores the history of the West Indian diaspora through a fictional account of the lives of one extended family. His third novel, ''Feeding the Ghosts'' (1997), was inspired by a visit D'Aguiar made to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool and is based on the true story of the ''Zong'' massacre, in which 132 slaves were thrown from a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

into the Atlantic for insurance purposes. According to historical accounts, one slave survived and climbed back onto the ship; and in D'Aguiar's narrative this slave – about whom there is next to no historical information – is developed as the fictional character Mintah. His fourth novel, ''Bethany Bettany'' (2003), centres on a five-year-old Guyanese girl, Bethany, whose suffering has been read by some as symbolising that of a nation (Guyana) seeking to make itself whole again. His 2014 novel ''Children of Paradise'' is a fictional reimagining of the

massacre, told from the perspective of a mother and child living at the commune.

Plays

D'Aguiar's plays include ''High Life'', first produced at the Albany Empire in London in 1987, and ''A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Death'', performed at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

, London, in 1991. His radio play ''Mr Reasonable'' – about a freed black slave, a skilled silk weaver, who is engaged by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

to make theatrical costumes – was broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

on 10 April 2015."Mr Reasonable by Fred D'Aguiar"
BBC Radio 4.

Bibliography

*1985. ''Mama Dot''. London:

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

. *1988. ''

The New British Poetry ''The New British Poetry 1968-88'' was a poetry anthology from 1988, jointly edited by Gillian Allnutt, Fred D'Aguiar, Ken Edwards and Eric Mottram, respectively concerned with feminist, Black British, younger experimental and British poetry revi ...

'' 1968–88. Edited with

Gillian Allnutt Gillian Allnutt (born 15 January 1949 in London) is an English poet, author of 9 collections and recipient of several prizes including the 2016 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Life Allnutt was born in London, but was educated at La Sagesse Schoo ...

, Ken Edwards and Eric Mottram. *1989. '' Airy Hall''. London: Chatto & Windus. *1993. ''British Subjects''. London: Bloodaxe. *1994. ''

The Longest Memory ''The Longest Memory'' is a 1994 short novel (138 pages long) by British writer Fred D'Aguiar. It was the Guyana-born poet's first novel, The story takes place on a Virginian plantation, in the period before the American Civil War, between 1790 ...

''. London: Chatto & Windus. *1995. '' A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Death'' (play). London: Methuen. *1996. ''Dear Future''. London: Chatto & Windus. *1997. ''Feeding the Ghosts''. London: Chatto & Windus. *1998. ''Bill of Rights''. London: Chatto & Windus. *2000. ''Bloodlines''. London: Chatto & Windus. *2001. ''An English Sampler: New and Selected Poems''. *2004. ''Bethany Bettany'', 2003. London: Chatto & Windus. *2009. ''Continental Shelf''. Oxford:

Carcanet Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt (poet), Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the ''Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year. History ''Carcanet ...

. *2014. ''Children of Paradise''. New York:

Harper (publisher) Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

Prizes and awards

*1983: Minority Rights Group Award *1984: University of Kent T. S. Eliot Prize (for University of Kent students) *1985: GLC Literature Award *1985: Malcolm X Prize for Poetry (for ''Mama Dot'') *1989: Guyana Poetry Prize (for ''Mama Dot'' and ''Airy Hall'') *1993: Commission for Racial Equality

Race in the Media Award The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when i ...

(for ''Sweet Thames'') *1994:

(for ''The Longest Memory'') *1994: Whitbread First Novel Award (for ''The Longest Memory'') *1996:

Guyana Prize for Literature Guyanese literature covers works including novels, poetry, plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana, British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana, which ar ...

(for ''Dear Future'') *1997: Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (for ''Feeding the Ghosts'') *2009: T. S. Eliot Prize (Shortlist) *2019; Cholmondeley Award

References

External links

*
Fred D'Aguiar at The Poetry ArchiveFred D'Aguiar at This I Believe: "Dance Is Life"
as heard on ''The Bob Edwards Show'', 30 March 2012.
The Story in History: An Interview with Fred D'Aguiar
at ''

Rain Taxi ''Rain Taxi'' is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, ''Rain Taxi'' maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts read ...

''.