World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Maggie Harris

マギー・ハリス

Maggie Harris

Profile

Gender
Female
Nationality
Guyana
Languages
English
Residence History
Guyana (birth — before migration) → Thanet, Kent, United Kingdom (c.1973–2006; returned later) → Wales (2006–c.2016)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Short story writer, Memoirist, Visual artist, Creative writing tutor
Active Years
1980-
Affiliations
University of Southampton (International Teaching Fellow)
Influenced By
Leonard Cohen, Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Lawrence Scott, Isabel Allende, Jean Toomer, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Pauline Melville, Grace Nichols

Education

University of Kent
African and Caribbean Studies
Degree: BA（アフリカ・カリブ研究）、MA（ポストコロニアル研究）
Country: United Kingdom
Attended as a mature student and obtained BA and MA degrees

Awards

Guyana Prize for Literature
2000
Work: Limbolands
Organization: Guyana Prize for Literature
Result: winner
Guyana Prize for Literature
2014
Work: Sixty Years of Loving
Organization: Guyana Prize for Literature
Result: winner
Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Caribbean region)
2014
Work: Sending for Chantal
Organization: Commonwealth Foundation
Result: regional winner
Kingston University Life-Writing Competition
2008
Work: Kiskadee Girl
Organization: Kingston University
Result: winner
Wales Poetry Award
2020
Work: and the thing is
Organization: Poetry Wales
Result: first prize
Edge Hill Short Story Prize
2016
Work: In Margate by Lunchtime
Organization: Edge Hill University
Result: longlisted
University of Kent T. S. Eliot Prize
Organization: University of Kent
Result: recipient
Leverhulme Trust Research Abroad Scholarship
Organization: Leverhulme Trust
Result: scholarship

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Limbolands

1999 Poetry

An early poetry collection exploring migration, loss and nostalgia from the perspective of a Guyanese writer negotiating homeland and new environments.

MigrationLossNostalgiaLandscape

Sixty Years of Loving

2014 Poetry

A collection of poems interweaving life, love and the experience of womanhood; the cover features the author's own artwork.

LoveWomanhoodTimeMemory

After a Visit to a Botanical Garden

2010 Poetry

Poems that use a visit to a botanical garden as a lens to explore landscape, memory and colonial histories.

LandscapeMemoryColonialism

Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning

2012 Short story collection

A collection of short stories set around Kent and the UK, depicting migrants and local lives through diverse perspectives.

MigrationCommunityEveryday life

In Margate by Lunchtime

2015 Short story collection

Stories portraying seaside and suburban landscapes and the small dramas of their inhabitants; longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.

Sense of placeEveryday lifeMemory

Writing on Water

2017 Short story collection

A short story collection using movement and fluidity as motifs to examine personal histories and shifting relationships.

MovementRelationshipsChange

Kiskadee Girl

2011 Memoir

A memoir centred on the author's childhood in the Caribbean; winner of Kingston University's life-writing competition.

ChildhoodFamilyBelonging

Bibliography

  • Limbolands
  • From Berbice to Broadstairs
  • After a Visit to a Botanical Garden
  • Selected Poems 1999–2010
  • Sixty Years of Loving
  • On Watching a Lemon Sail the Sea
  • Canterbury Tales on a Cockcrow Morning
  • In Margate by Lunchtime
  • Writing on Water
  • Kiskadee Girl

Adaptations

  • Public art installation at Rochester Cathedral ('Dear Mr Dickens' poem displayed)
  • Public display in Canterbury's Westgate Gardens ('Canterbury' on display)
  • BBC-commissioned poem 'Lit by Fire' about North Foreland Lighthouse (2016)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Lyrical and concise languageNarrative voice in short fictionBlending of post-colonial perspectives with landscape depictionVisual-art-influenced imagery
Recurring Motifs
Migration and loss of homelandQuestions of homeMotherhood and women's experienceLandscape and memory

Legacy

As a Guyanese poet and short story writer, she is recognised for work on migration, nostalgia and womanhood. A multiple winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature and a regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, she has influenced local literary culture by founding a live literature festival and contributing poems to public art installations.

In Popular Culture

  • Contributions to public art with poems displayed at Rochester Cathedral and in Canterbury public spaces

Quotes

  • Generally speaking, as a writer from Guyana, themes of migration and loss, engagement with questions of 'home', history and landscape are intrinsic to my writing. The loss of homeland and 'roots' is a strong undercurrent, as is also the fact of being a woman. Journeying, settlement and motherhood are also essential themes as is the realization of being a creative person, which means that these themes are not necessarily negative ones, but a part of life.
    Source: Interview (source referenced on Maggie Harris - Wikipedia)

Trivia

  • Migrated from Guyana to the United Kingdom in 1971.
  • Exhibited as a visual artist in the 1980s and beyond.
  • Founded the live literature festival 'Inscribing the Island' in Thanet in 2002.
  • The cover of 'Sixty Years of Loving' features the author's own artwork.