The collection Her True-True Name published posthumously excerpts from the work of three writers:
Phyllis Shand Allfrey: 1908-1986 (Dominica) Excerpt/Story: “The Master Comes Home” (156-163)[1]. From The Orchid House (1953). Allfrey died three years before Her True-True Name was published.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Phyllis Shand Allfrey was born in Dominica in 1900. One of four sisters, she grew up there in a family with a long tradition of service… The Orchid House is the story of a Dominican white Creole family, especially its women, told by Lally, the black nurse. It can be seen as, inter alia, a symbolic representation of the passing of power from coloniser to colonised. The extract here clearly contrasts the vitality and energy of black Dominicans with the pale thinness of the Master and the heavy tiredness that engulfs physical and personal environments in the family, on what Lally calls significantly ‘the longest day of my life’.
Marie Vieux Chauvet: 1916-1973 (Haiti) Excerpt/Story: “Love” (1989, 84-89). Translated by Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson. From Amour, colère et folie (1968). The English publication (2010) is titled Love, Anger, Madness.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Marie Chauvet was born in 1916 and grew up in Haiti. Her novels are among the most explicit pieces of fiction to address the Haitian situation. They are powerful evocations of the complexities and horrors of her homeland. Her earlier works include the prize-winning Fille d’Haiti (Daughter of Haiti: Paris, Fasquelle, 1954) and La Danse Sur le volcan (Dancing on the volcano: Paris, Plan, 1957). Her best-known work Amour, colère, folie (Love, anger, madness) was published in Paris by Gallimard in 1968. Chauvet’s prose is powerful and her insight and vision remarkable. Her third novel, Fonds des nègres (Port-au-Prince, Editions Deschamps), won the Grands Prix France-Antilles in 1960. She died in Brooklyn, New York in 1973. Another novel Les Rapaces (Birds of Prey: Port-au-Prince, Editions Deschamps, 1986) was published posthumously, under her maiden name, Marie Vieux.
Jean Rhys: 1890-1979 (Dominica) Excerpts “I used to live here once,” and an abridged version of “Let them call it Jazz” (144-156). From Tales of the Wider Caribbean (Heinemann, 1985), first published six years after Rhys’s death.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in the 1890s and came to England when she was 16. After attending drama school, she drifted into a series of jobs – chorus girl, mannequin, artist’s model … Between 1928 and 1939 she produced most of her work : After Leaving Mr McKenzie (Cape, 1930), Voyage in the Dark (Constable, 1934), and Good Morning, Midnight (Constable, 1939), short stories and autobiographical reminiscences, and, according to at least one of her biographers, a first draft of Wide Sargasso Sea. After the publication of Good Morning Midnight in 1939, Rhys slipped almost completely out of sight and was generally thought to have died. In fact she had continued to write and in 1947 had married Max Hamer ... In 1966 she made a dramatic re-appearance with publication of Wide Sargasso Sea by André Deutsch, who reissued all her novels between 1967 and 1973.
Ten other writers who contributed to the collection have died in the years since its publication in 1989. We celebrate these writers and honor their memory. They are:
Omega Agüero: 1940-2005 (Cuba) Excerpt/story, “A Man, A woman”(35-38) translated by Karin Wilson. From her collection of short stories, El Muro de Medio Metro (1977).
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Omega Agüero was born in Camaguey, Cuba, in 1940. She has worked as an actress and a teacher. Her first book La Alegre Vida campestre (The Good Life in the Country: Havana, Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba) won the David Prize for short stories in 1973. ‘A Man, A Woman’ (Un Hombre, Una Mujer) is taken from her collection of short stories El Muro de medio metro published in 1977 by the same publisher. Another volume of stories, Mujer flotando en el tiempo, and a collection of poetry, Después de Muerta tronaran mis huesos are in preparation … Omega Agüero’s stories deal with a range of situations. Her early stories focus largely o peasant life and the problems of the women in Cuba before the revolution. In her latest work she explains the themes of remembrance and the world of dreams.
Michelle Cliff: 1946-2016 (Jamaica) Excerpt: “No Telephone to Heaven” (48-56). From No Telephone to Heaven (1987).
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Michelle Cliff was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1946, and received her early education there ... She considers her identity as a mixed-blood Jamaican and the colonial experience as influences on her as a writer, as also the works of James Baldwin, Bessie Head, Ama Ata Aidoo, Virginia Woolf, and (especially) Toni Morrison. Her published work includes The Land of Look Behind (New York, Firebrand Books, 1980), Abeng (New York, Crossing Press, 1984) and No Telephone to Heaven (New York, Dutton, 1987) … A recipient of a (US) National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing and a Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation Grant in Fiction, Ms Cliff currently lives in Santa Cruz, California where she writes and teaches freelance.
Hilma Contreras: 1913-2006 (Dominican Republic) Story/Excerpt: “The Window” (90-92). Translated by Fernanda Steele. From the collection Entre dos silencios, published in Santo Domingo in 1987 by Editora Taller.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Hilma Contreras was born in San Francisco de Macoris and educated in Paris where she studied French, English, literature and archaeology. She started writing in the 1930s. After her return to Santo Domingo in 1933, her stories were published in various newspapers, especially La Información in Santiago and in Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura. She is said to be the first woman from the Dominican Republic to write short stories. A writer of remarkable poetic resonance, she has published three volumes of short stories: Cuatro Cuentos (Four Short Stories, 1953), El Ojo de Dios (God’s Eye, 1962) and most recently Entre Dos Silencios (Between Two Silences), a collection of 16 short stories from which the present story is taken. She has also published a novella, La Tierra está bramando (The Ragind Earth: Santo Domingo, Biblioteca Nacional, 1986).
Zee Edgell: 1940-2020 (Belize) Edgell's contribution to the collection was from her novel “Beka Lamb (1982). She passed away as we were organizing this conference. The following biographical details were published by News 5 Live.
ZeeEdgell, Belize’s foremost author of fiction, has died at the age of 80. She passed away on December 20, in her home after a battle with cancer. Born in Belize City, British Honduras in 1940, Mrs. Edgell was the daughter of the late Clive Tucker and Veronica Tucker (nee Walker). She was married to the late Alvin Edgell for 52 years. Together they raised two children: journalist Holly Edgell, 51, and physician Randall Edgell, 45. Through Randall and his wife, Emily Shavers Edgell, the couple had three grandchildren: Isaac, Sophia and Simon. Mrs. Edgell’s siblings are Barry Tucker, Laura Tucker-Longsworth, Martha Tucker-Eiley, Monica Tucker and Ava Tucker. Three brothers, Clive Tucker Jr., Alexander “Zandy” Tucker and Lenton Tucker are deceased. Mrs. Edgell authored four novels and five short stories set in Belize, the only Belizean writer of fiction to do so. Her first book, Beka Lamb (Heineman 1982), is beloved in Belize and throughout the Caribbean. It has been part of school and examination curricula in the region and in other parts of the world since its publication. Mrs. Edgell received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados in 2009. She holds a Master of Liberal Studies degree from Kent State University and earned a diploma in journalism from Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster). In 2007, she received an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II, for her services to literature and the community. Among Mrs. Edgell’s many services to Belize was her founding of the “The Reporter” newspaper in 1967. In addition, she served as director of the Women’s Bureau (later the Women’s Department) under the People’s United Party and the United Democratic Party in the 1980s. Later, she was a lecturer at the University College of Belize (now the University of Belize). Over the decades, Mrs. Edgell took time to visit schools around Belize to meet with young people studying her work and read to them from her books.
Rosario Ferré: 1938-2016 (Puerto Rico) Excerpt/Story: “The Youngest Doll” (1989, 93-97). Translated by the writer, Rosario Ferré, and Diana Velez. The collection was later published in English (1991) as The Youngest Doll.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio : Rosario Ferré, poet and short story writer, is one of Puerto Rico’s best-known writers. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, she studied English and Latin American Literature in Puerto Rico and the United States. Ferré founded and directed an important review dedicated to the diffusion of the fledgling Puerto Rican literature, Zona de carga y descarga (Loading Zone). This extract is taken from ‘La Muñeca Menor (The Youngest Doll), the first story in Ferré’s first collection Papeles de Pandora(Pandora’s Papers: 1976), which takes its title from the legendary Greek Pandora, the first woman on earth ’(1989,93). The collection includes poetry as well as 14 short stories which cover a variety of themes but take as their starting point an ancient legend that the good and evil from Pandora’s box spread through the world in the form of writing. Ferré shows the subtle and devastating power of language and examines the effect of human perversity and passion.
Beryl Gilroy: 1924-2001 (Guyana) Story/Excerpt: “Frangipani House” (1-9). From her first novel, Frangipani House (1986).
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Beryl Gilroy, originally from Guyana, has lived in England for many years. A counseling psychologist, she directs her own private clinic in London, where she works mainly with black women. She has also been a teacher, researcher, and writer and was the first black headmistress of a North London primary school. Beryl Gilroy has written many language arts textbooks. In 1976 she published Black Teacher (Cassells), an account of her experiences as a teacher. Frangipani House (Heinemann, 1986)was her first novel; her second, Boy-Sandwich, was published in 1989… Frangipani House tells the story of Mama King, a defiant old lady who resists the efforts of her well-meaning children to confine her to an old people’s home and to deprive her of work, an old and faithful friend.
Rosa Guy: 1922-2012 (Trinidad & Tobago) Excerpt: “Désirée Dieu-Donné” (182-188). From the novel My Love, My Love orThe Peasant Girl, a Caribbean-American retelling of The Little Mermaid also produced as a musical.
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio:Rosa Guy was born in Trinidad in 1928, and came to the United States in 1932 with her family. She grew up in Harlem, the setting for many of her novels. Her family name was Cuthbert. She married Warner Guy, now deceased, and has one son. Rosa Guy’s first novel, Bird at My Window, was published in 1966 (Lippincott) and since that time she has written several novels, especially for and about young people, as well as short stories and a play. Her novels include The Friends (Holt, 1973); Ruby: a Novel (Viking, 1976); The Disappearance (Delacorte, 1979) which was named on the ‘Best Books for Young Adults 1979’ list by the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association; A Measure of Time (Holt, 1983) and I Heard a Bird Sing (Delacorte, 1986).
Paule Marshall: 1929-2019 (Barbados) Excerpt: “Barbados” (164-171). From Soul Clap Hands and Sing (1961).
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Paule Marshall, born in 1929, grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but both her parents were Barbadian and she has lived for long periods in the Caribbean. Many of her stories are about characters who are West Indian and who have West Indian connections. She has written three novels : Brown Girl, Brownstones, originally published in 1959 and reissued in 1981 by the Feminist Press, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (N.Y., Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969) and Praise Song for the Widow (N.Y., Putnam’s, 1983). She has also produced a collection of stories Reena and Other Stories (N.Y., Feminist Press, 1983), and a collection of novellas, Soul Clap Hands and Sing (1961). Paule Marshall has taught creative writing at Yale, Columbia, and University of Massachusetts (Boston) and at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has one son and resides in New York.
Marion Patrick-Jones: 1931-2016 (Trinidad & Tobago) Excerpt: “Elizabeth” (189-195). From J‘ouvert Morning (1976) .
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Marion Patrick-Jones was born in Trinidad in the 1930s… Her two novels, Pan Beat (1973) and J’Ouvert Morning (1976) were published by Columbus Publishers, Trinidad. J’Ouvert Morning looks at the life of a Trinidadian middle-class family held together, ironically, by their isolation, variously seeking refuge from a sense of failure in the uncompromising harbours of drink, philandering, money and position, religion and radical politics. Marion Patrick-Jones’s drunken Elizabeth – ‘Stinking Fur Liz, as she is nicknamed’ – is feisty, robust, and self-affirming even in her dissoluteness. The bonding, across social class, of Elizabeth and Rosie, who share womanness, Trinidadianness, and a personally defined and highly prized independence, is a contribution to gender discourse that is well ahead of its time.
Myriam Warner-Vieyra: 1939-2017 (Guadeloupe) Excerpt: “Juletane” (137-143). Translated by Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson. From Juletane (1982. Translated into English, 1987).
From Her True-True Name 1989 bio: Myriam Warner-Vieyra, from Guadeloupe, has lived in Senegal for many years...Myriam Warner Vieyra’s novels portray the predicament of the West Indian heroine whose attempts to find happiness and self-fulfillment are constantly thwarted. This is the story of the protagonist of Le Quimboiseur l’avait dit (Paris, Présence Africaine, 1980, translation: As the Sorcerer Said, Longman, 1985) set in Paris, and Juletane (Présence Africaine, 1982, translation: Heinemann, 1987) set in West Africa. Her most recent work, Femmes Echouées, (Broken Women, Presence Africaine, 1988) a collection of nine Caribbean short stories, continues to reflect Warner-Vieyra’s gently ironic., somewhat pessimistic vision.
[1] Page numbers are from Her True-True Name, 1989.