Goodison’s New Book Launched

Jamaican author, Lorna Goodison’s new book, ‘From Harvey River’, had its official United Kingdom (UK) launch, at the Jamaican High Commission in London, last week.
The book is a memoir of Ms. Goodson’s mother, Doris. It tells of her life in Harvey River in Hanover, where she was born and grew as one of the ‘Fabulous Harvey Girls’. The narrative follows her marriage to Marcus and the family’s move to Kingston where she raised a family of nine children.
Reading from the prologue of the book, Ms. Goodison said that Harvey River was the story of her parents and about them rising up to a new life.
Described as a leading West Indian writer of the generation born after World War II, Ms. Goodison started writing poetry in her teenage years. She has published 11 collections of poems, including ‘Tamarind Season’ and ‘I Am Becoming My Mother’, which was the 1986 winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the Americas region. She has also published two collections of short stories, ‘Baby Mother’ and the ‘King of Swords’ and ‘Fool-Fool Rose Is Leaving Labour-in-Vain Savannah’.
In 1999, Ms. Goodison was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for her contribution to literature.
Harvey River, read by well-known actress of Jamaican heritage, Dona Croll, was also selected by BBC Radio for its Book of the Week serialisation during early May .