Mervyn Eustace Morris OM (born 21 February 1937) is a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the ...

Mona, Jamaica Mona is a neighbourhood in southeastern Saint Andrew Parish, approximately eight kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica. A former sugarcane plantation, it is the site of a reservoir serving the city of Kingston and the main campus of the Univers ...

. According to educator Ralph Thompson, "In addition to his poetry, which has ranked him among the top West Indian poets, he was one of the first academics to espouse the importance of

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 ...

in helping to define in verse important aspects of Jamaican culture."

Biography

Mervyn Morris was born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inte ...

, and studied at the

University College of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

(UWI) and as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...

. In 1970, he began lecturing at UWI, where he went on to be appointed a Reader in West Indian Literature. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the

South Bank Centre Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge). It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the N ...

. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature. In 2009, Morris was awarded the

Jamaican Order of Merit The Order of Merit is part of the Jamaican honours system, and it is the fourth-highest honour awarded by the nation of Jamaica. The Order of Merit is conferred upon Jamaicans or distinguished citizens of other countries who have achieved intern ...

. In 2014, Morris was appointed the

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of Jamaica, the first to be accorded the title since the country's independence (the previous holders being

Tom Redcam Thomas MacDermot (26 June 1870 – 8 October 1933) was a Jamaican poet, novelist, and editor, editing the ''Jamaica Times'' for more than 20 years. He was "probably the first Jamaican writer to assert the claim of the West Indies to a distinct ...

, who was appointed posthumously in 1933, and John Ebenezer Clare McFarlane, appointed in 1953). The investiture ceremony took place at King's House on 22 May. In March 2021, Morris was announced as the co-recipient, together with Edward Baugh, of the 2021

Bocas Henry Swanzy Award The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest lit ...

Works

Morris has published several volumes of poetry, and has edited the works of other

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

writers. His collections include ''The Pond'' (revised edition, New Beacon Books, 1997), ''Shadowboxing'' (New Beacon Books, 1979), ''Examination Centre'' (New Beacon Books, 1992) and ''On Holy Week'' (a sequence of poems for radio, Dangaroo Press, 1993). He also edited ''The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories'' and published ''"Is English We Speaking", and other essays''. In 2006,

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

published his ''I been there, sort of: New and Selected Poems''.Carcanet Press - ''I been there, sort of''
Carcanet Press. The best known poems by Morris include: "Little Boy Crying", "Family Pictures", "Love Is", "One, Two", "Home", "The Roaches", "The Pond" and "Critic".

Selected bibliography

Poetry

* ''The Pond'' – New Beacon Books, 1973. (hb * ''On Holy Week'' – Dangaroo Press, 1976. (pb) * ''Shadow Boxing'' – New Beacon Books, 1979. (pb) * ''Examination Centre'' – New Beacon Books, 1992. (pb) * ''I Been There, Sort Of: New and Selected Poems'' –

, 2006. (pb)

Non-fiction

* ''"Is English We Speaking", and other essays'' – Ian Randle Publishers, 1999. (pb) * ''Making West Indian Literature'' – Ian Randle Publishers, 2005. (pb) * ''Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture'' – Signal Books, 2014. (pb)

As editor

* ''Seven Jamaican Poets'' - 1971 * ''The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories'' – Faber & Faber, 1990. (pb) * (with Jimmy Carnegie) ''Lunch Time Medley: Writings on West Indies Cricket'' – Ian Randle Publishers, 2008. (pb) * (with Carolyn Allen) ''Writing Life: Reflections by West Indian Writers'' – Ian Randle Publishers, 2008. (pb)

References

External links

"Mervyn Morris", The Poetry Archive.
* Mervyn Morris
"Poet Laureate Remarks at Investiture Ceremony
King's House, 21 May 2014". * Geoffrey Philp

7 December 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Mervyn 20th-century Jamaican poets 21st-century Jamaican poets Jamaican Poets Laureate Jamaican male poets 20th-century male writers 21st-century male writers University of the West Indies academics Recipients of the Order of Merit (Jamaica) People from Kingston, Jamaica 1937 births Living people