"Throughout her life my mother [Doris] lived in two places at once: Kingston, Jamaica, where she raised a family of nine children, and Harvey River, in the parish of Hanover, where she was born and grew up."
In the tradition of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family and Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana comes Lorna Goodison's luminous memoir of her forebears—From Harvey River. When Doris' English grandfather, William Harvey, discovers a clearing at the end of a path cut by the feet of those running from slavery, he gives his name to what will become his family's home for generations. For Doris, Harvey River is the place she always called home, the place where she was one of the "fabulous Harvey girls" and where the rich local bounty of the land went hand in hand with the Victorian niceties and comforts of her parents' house. It is a place she will return to in dreams when her fortunes change, years later, and she and her husband, Marcus Goodison, relocate to "hard life" Kingston and encounter the harsh realities of urban living in close quarters as they raise their family of nine children.
In lush prose, Lorna Goodison weaves memory and island lore to create a vivid, universally appealing tapestry.

From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island

Biographies & Memoirs

Goodison, Lorna

Community & Culture

Amistad

When Doris Harvey's English grandfather, William Harvey, discovers a clearing at the end of a path cut by the feet of those running from slavery, he gives his name to what will become his family's home for generations. For Doris, Harvey River is the place she always called home, the place where she was one of the "fabulous Harvey girls," and where the rich local bounty of Lucea yams, pimentos, and mangoes went hand in hand with the Victorian niceties of her parents' house. It is a place she will return to in dreams when her fortunes change, years later, and she and her husband, Marcus Goodison, relocate to "hard life" Kingston and encounter the harsh realities of urban living in close quarters. In Lorna Goodison's luminous memoir of her forebears, we meet a cast of wonderfully drawn characters, including George O'Brian Wilson, the Irish patriarch of the family who marries a Guinea woman after coming to Jamaica in the mid-1800s; Doris's parents, Margaret and David, childhood sweethearts who become the first family of Harvey River; and Margaret and David's eight children. In lush, vivid prose, textured with the cadences of Creole speech, Lorna Goodison weaves together memory and mythology to create a vivid tapestry. She takes us deep into the heart of a complete world to tell a universal story of family and the ties that bind us to the place we call home.

“A beautifully written and evocative book.” —Danielle Evans, author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
“Written by the hand of a poet, the prose in this collection is consistently beautiful.” —Elizabeth Nunez, author of Prospero’s Daughter and Boundaries
“I love the tender beautiful writing; I love the characters, and in many ways it felt as if I had met them before….I just love this book.” —Uwem Akpan, author of Say You’re One of Them, an Oprah Book Club selection
Internationally renowned and award-winning poet Lorna Goodison brings us By Love Possessed, her long-anticipated collection of short fiction. Making dazzling use of the Creole patois of Jamaica, Goodison limns the beauty and despair of the human condition and explores the unique power of love to both uplift and destroy. Goodison’s powerfully moving stories explore the pain, the struggle, and the triumph of Jamaicans—particularly women—those still living on their Caribbean island and those who have emigrated elsewhere. By Love Possessed is a rare and beautiful gift from an extraordinary writer who was mentored by the legendary Derek Walcott and who stands with Edwidge Danticat as a brave and breathtaking voice in contemporary literature.

By Love Possessed: Stories

Literature & Fiction

United States

Controlling the Silver (Illinois Poetry Series)

Poetry

University of Illinois Press

Writing in The Hudson Review, David Mason has characterized Lorna Goodison's work as a "revelation to me, much of it beautiful for its simple negotiation of the line between life and art." One of the most distinguished contemporary poets of the Caribbean, Goodison draws on both African and European inheritances in her finely crafted poems, which often carry a sense of language's healing power in the face of the pain of the past. She deals thematically with the struggle of Caribbean women and writes in a fashion that has developed from conversational to more ritualistic. From reviews of Goodison's earlier works: "The evocative power of Lorna Goodison's poetry derives its urgency and appeal from the heart-and-mind concerns she has for language, history, racial identity, and gender." Andrew Salkey -- World Literature Today "A marvelous poet, one to savor and to chant aloud." -- Pat Monaghan, Booklist

To Us, All Flowers Are Roses: POEMS (Illinois Poetry (Paperback))

History & Criticism

The lyric energy, compassion, humor, and tenderness that characterize Lorna Goodison's work are once again in evidence in Turn Thanks, her seventh collection. Here the Jamaican poet turns to acknowledge her own ancestors and those of her craft: mother and father, aunts and uncles, Africa, William Wordsworth, Vincent Van Gogh, the Wild Woman. "Whether you will receive this letter or not I cannot tell," she writes. "Still, I intend to send it . . . "

Turn Thanks: POEMS

Renowned poet Lorna Goodison has written a new collection of elegies and praise songs which explore the close link between history and genealogy in the Caribbean experience. Her subjects range from the economic genius of market women to the complex beauty of the natural world.

A selection of poems by Lorna Goodison, who in 2017 was named Poet Laureate of Jamaica.

Selected Poems

University of Michigan Press

Poetry of personal and political vibrancy by a contemporary Caribbean writer

This book contains a collection of short stories by a Jamaican author. The stories treat the themes of love, pride and poverty from a feminist perspective. Lorna Goodison's other works include "Tamarind Seed", "I Am Becoming My Mother" and "Heartsease".

Baby Mother and the King of Swords (LONGMAN CARIBBEAN WRITERS SERIES)

Contemporary

Longman Trade/Caroline House

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Goodison, Lorna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Goodison, Lorna

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Goodison, Lorna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island

From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her Island

By Love Possessed: Stories

Controlling the Silver (Illinois Poetry Series)

To Us, All Flowers Are Roses: POEMS (Illinois Poetry (Paperback))

Turn Thanks: POEMS

Controlling the Silver (Illinois Poetry Series)

Selected Poems

Selected Poems

Baby Mother and the King of Swords (LONGMAN CARIBBEAN WRITERS SERIES)