Published in 1983 by Karnak House,
i is a long-memoried womanis the first poetry collection by Guyanese writer, Grace Nichols. The collection garnered critical acclaim upon its release, winning the Commonwealth Poetry Prize that same year. As Laurence A. Briener notes, the 1980s brought the increasing presence of women’s work to Caribbean poetry (230). Lorna Goodison’s first collection,
Tamarind Season, was published in 1980, with other seminal female writers, including NourbeSe Philip and Michelle Cliff, also releasing work in that year. By the time of the
First International Conference on Women Writers of the English-Speaking Caribbeanin 1988 – seen as a “founding event of Caribbean women’s writing” (Cudjoe 5) – Nichols’ was part of a growing cohort of women writers…
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Citation: Howley, Ellen. "i is a long-memoried woman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 May 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14252, accessed 21 November 2024.]