Markham, E.A. (Edward Archibald)

(1939- )

   Poet, novelist and short-story writer, he was born on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, and after living in different parts of Europe he settled in Britain in 1956. He read English and philosophy at St. David's University College, Lampeter, Wales, and did further study at the University of East Anglia. From 1968 to 1970 he lectured at Kilburn Polytechnic in London, directed the Caribbean Theatre Workshop in the Eastern Caribbean (1970-1971), and lectured at the Abraham Moss Centre in Manchester (1976-1978). From 1983 to 1985, he worked as a media coordinator for the Enga Provincial government in Papua New Guinea, then was editor of the magazine Artrage from 1985 to 1987. He is currently professor of creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University. The government of Montserrat awarded him the Certificate of Honor in 1997. His most recent poetry collections are: Misapprehensions (1995) and A Rough Climate (2002), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Some of his poems: "An Old Thought for a New Couple," "Don't Talk to Me about Bread," "Grandfather's Sermon and Michael Smith," "Grandmotherpoem," "The Mother's Tale," "The Sea," "Towards the End of a Century."

   Sources: Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry. Keith Tuma, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. British Council Arts (http://www.contemporarywriters.com). Caribbean Poetry Now. Stewart Brown, ed. Edward Arnold, 1992. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry. Stewart Brown and Ian McDonald, eds. Heinemann, 1992. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English. Paula Burnett, ed. Penguin Books, 1986.