Earl Lovelace


Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."

Biography

Born in Toco, Trinidad and Tobago, Earl Lovelace was sent to live with his grandparents in Tobago at a very young age, but rejoined his family in Toco when he was 11 years old. His family later moved to Belmont, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and then Morvant. Lovelace attended Scarborough Methodist Primary School, Scarborough, Tobago, Nelson Street Boys' R.C., Port of Spain, and Ideal High School, Port of Spain.
He worked at the Trinidad Guardian as a proofreader from 1953 to 1954, and then for the Department of Forestry and the Ministry of Agriculture. He began writing while stationed in the village of Valencia as a forest ranger.
In 1962 his first novel, While Gods Are Falling, won the Trinidad and Tobago Independence literary competition sponsored by British Petroleum.
From 1966 to 1967, Lovelace studied at Howard University, Washington, DC, and in 1974 he received an MA in English from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, where he was also Visiting Novelist.
He taught at Federal City College, Washington, DC, and from 1977 to 1987 he lectured in literature and creative writing at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. Winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980, he spent the year as a visiting writer at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
He was appointed Writer-in-Residence in England by the London Arts Board, a visiting lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and was Distinguished Novelist in the Department of English at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington.
Lovelace was Trinidad and Tobago's artistic director for Carifesta, held in the country in 1992, 1995 and 2006.
He is a columnist for the Trinidad Express, and has contributed to a number of periodicals, including Voices, South, and Wasafiri. Based in Trinidad, while teaching and touring various countries, he was appointed to the Board of Governors of the University of Trinidad and Tobago in 2005, the year his 70th birthday was honoured with a conference and celebrations at the University of the West Indies. He is the president of the Association of Caribbean Writers.
Lovelace is the subject of a 2014 documentary film by Funso Aiyejina entitled A Writer In His Place.
In July 2015, to mark his 80th birthday, Lovelace was honoured by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest with celebrations in Tobago, including film screenings.
He is the subject of a 2017 biography by Funso Aiyejina.

Writing

When Lovelace's first novel, While Gods Are Falling, was published in 1965, C. L. R. James hailed "a new type of writer, a new type of prose, a different type of work". Lovelace went on to publish five further novels, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize-winning Salt and, most recently, Is Just a Movie, winner of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. In 1986, he published the novel The Wine of Astonishment, which deals with the struggle of a Spiritual Baptist community, from the passing of the prohibition ordinance until the ban. He has also written plays, short stories, essays, and a children's book.

Family

His artist son Che Lovelace illustrated the jacket of the 1997 US edition of his novel Salt. Earl Lovelace has collaborated with his filmmaker daughter Asha Lovelace on projects including writing the 2004 feature film Joebell and America, based on his short story of the same title.

Awards and recognition

Novels