M. NourbeSe Philip facts for kids

Marlene Nourbese Philip (born 3 February 1947), often known as M. NourbeSe Philip, is a Canadian writer. She writes poetry, novels, plays, essays, and short stories.

About M. NourbeSe Philip's Life and Books

Marlene NourbeSe Philip was born in Woodlands, Moriah, Trinidad and Tobago, a country in the Caribbean. She went to the University of the West Indies. Later, she studied political science and law at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She worked as a lawyer in Toronto, Ontario, for seven years. In 1983, she decided to stop practicing law to focus on her writing.

Philip is known for trying new ways to write and for caring deeply about social justice. This means she believes in fairness and equal rights for everyone.

She has written many books, including five poetry collections, two novels, four essay collections, and two plays. Her short stories and essays have appeared in magazines in North America and England. Her poems are also found in many poetry collections. Her work is studied in universities and is the subject of many academic papers.

Her Novel Harriet's Daughter

Her first novel, Harriet's Daughter (1988), is a popular book for young adults. It is used in high schools in Ontario, Canada, and Great Britain. For ten years, all students in the Caribbean studying for their high school CXC diploma read this book.

Even though it's called "young adult literature," Harriet's Daughter is a story that people of all ages can enjoy. The story takes place in Toronto. It explores important ideas like friendship, how you see yourself, doing the right thing, and moving to a new country. The book is exciting, funny, and well-written. It shows being Black in a very positive way.

Her Poetry and Essays

Philip's most famous poetry book is She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks. It won the Casa de las Américas Prize for Literature even before it was fully published. In this book, she writes about themes like race, where you come from, gender, and how language shapes us. Philip loves to play with words, changing them and repeating them, almost like jazz music. She often explores the difference between the "father tongue" (traditional European ways of speaking) and the "mother tongue" (Black African female ways of speaking).

A well-known part of her poem Discourse on the Logic of Language says:

Philip also writes many essays. Her essays show her strong opinions and her passion for fairness in the arts. She was one of the first writers to focus on culture when talking about social justice and equality. She wrote about important events like the Into the Heart of Africa exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Toronto show of Show Boat, and Caribana (a big Caribbean festival). Her essays also helped bring attention to the need for more diverse people on arts committees in Canada.

Teaching and Zong!

Philip has also taught at the University of Toronto and York University. She has been a writer-in-residence at McMaster University and University of Windsor. This means she spent time at these universities helping students with their writing.

Her 2008 book, Zong!, is a long poem based on a real and sad event from the late 1700s. It's about the terrible murder of Africans on a British slave ship called the Zong. In 2012, Philip held a special seven-hour reading of Zong! in Toronto. Both she and the audience read the poem together, creating a powerful experience. Another similar reading happened in Blomfontein, South Africa. In 2024, Zong! was republished with new parts.

Philip once said about her writing: "fiction is about telling lies, but you must be scathingly honest in telling those lies. Poetry is about truth telling, but you need the lie – the artifice of the form to tell those truths." This means that even when writing made-up stories, you have to be honest about human feelings. And with poetry, you use the art of words to share deep truths.

Her writing has been included in many collections, such as International Feminist Fiction (1992) and Daughters of Africa (1992).

Awards and Recognition

M. NourbeSe Philip has received many awards for her important work:

• Casa de las Americas prize for the manuscript of She Tries Her Tongue... – 1998
• Tradewinds Collective (Trinidad & Tobago) Poetry – 1st prize, 1988
• Tradewinds Collective (Trinidad & Tobago) Short Story – 1st prize, 1988
• Canadian Library Association prize for children's literature, runner-up, for Harriet's Daughter – 1989
• Max and Greta Abel Award for Multicultural Literature, first runner-up for Harriet's Daughter – 1989
• Guggenheim Fellow, in poetry – 1990
• MacDowell Fellow – 1991
• Lawrence Foundation Award for the short story "Stop Frame" – 1995
• Toronto Arts Award in writing and publishing, finalist – 1995
• Rebels for a Cause award, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Toronto – 2001
• Woman of Distinction award in the Arts, YWCA – 2001
• Chalmers Fellowship in Poetry – 2002
• Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy – 2005
• PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature – 2020
• Molson Prize – 2021
• Windham-Campbell Literature Prize – 2024