Jamaican Erna Brodber wins Yale University prize
JAMAICAN FICTION author Erna Brodber is among eight writers who will each receive US$165,000 for winning the WindhamCampbell Prizes offered by Yale University in the United States.
The money is to be used to support the work of the authors.
Brodber, who hails from the community of Woodside in St Mary, has been writing for more than four decades.
Some of her notable works include Myal (1988) and Nothing’s Mat (2014), where she skilfully uses elements of Afro-Jamaican cultures to convey both the richness of diasporic traditions, as well as the danger of forgetting them.
Another Caribbean fiction writer, André Alexis, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, also received the Windham-Campbell Prize.
The other authors are from the United States, Ireland, and New Zealand.
English language writers from anywhere in the world are eligible for The WindhamCampbell Prizes. Recipients are nominated confidentially and judged anonymously. The call that prize recipients receive from programme director Michael Kelleher is the first time that they have learnt of their consideration. The awards will be conferred in September at an international literary festival at Yale University, celebrating the honoured writers and introducing them to new audiences.