Olive Senior facts for kids

Olive Marjorie Senior is a famous Jamaican writer. She was born on December 23, 1941. She writes poems, novels, short stories, and non-fiction books. Today, she lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Olive Senior has won many important awards for her writing. In 2005, she received the Musgrave Gold Medal from the Institute of Jamaica for her great work in literature. She also won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. From 2021 to 2024, Olive Senior was the Poet Laureate of Jamaica, which is a special title given to a country's most important poet.

Life and Career of Olive Senior

Olive Senior grew up in a countryside area of Trelawny, Jamaica. She was the seventh of ten children in her family. She went to Montego Bay High School for Girls.

Early Work and Education

When she was 19, Olive Senior started working at the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper in Kingston. Later, she worked for the Jamaica Information Service. She then earned a scholarship to study journalism at the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff, Wales. She also studied at Carleton University School of Journalism in Ottawa, Canada, as a Commonwealth scholar.

Starting Her Writing Journey

While at university, Olive Senior began writing her own stories and poems. After returning to Jamaica, she worked as a freelance writer. She also joined the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of the West Indies. There, she helped edit a journal called Social and Economic Studies from 1972 to 1977. In 1982, she became the editor of the Jamaica Journal at the Institute of Jamaica.

Moving to Canada and Major Awards

In 1987, Olive Senior won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her first collection of short stories, Summer Lightning. After a big hurricane hit Jamaica in 1988, she moved to Europe. She lived in different countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In the early 1990s, she settled in Toronto, Canada.

In 2019, she received the Matt Cohen Award from the Writers' Trust of Canada. This award celebrates a writer's entire career. On March 17, 2021, Olive Senior was officially named Jamaica's Poet Laureate for 2021–2024. In 2024, she was honored as a Royal Society of Literature International Writer. This is a lifelong award that recognizes writers from all over the world.

Olive Senior's Literary Works

Olive Senior has written many different kinds of books. Her work often explores what it means to be from the Caribbean. She talks about identity, gender, and different cultures. She once said that she embraces all parts of her heritage.

Poetry Collections

She has published five collections of poems. These include Talking of Trees (1985), Gardening in the Tropics (1994), Over the Roofs of the World (2005), Shell (2007), and Hurricane Watch: New and Collected Poems (2022). A reviewer from The Observer newspaper noted that Olive Senior pays attention to both small, everyday things and big global issues in her poems.

Short Story Collections

Her short story collection Summer Lightning (1986) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Other collections include Arrival of the Snake Woman (1989, 2009) and Discerner of Hearts (1995). Her most recent collection, The Pain Tree (2015), won the 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Novels and Non-Fiction

Olive Senior's first novel, Dancing Lessons (2011), was nominated for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize in Canada.

She has also written non-fiction books. These include The Message Is Change (1972), about a political leader in Jamaica. She also wrote A-Z of Jamaican Heritage (1984), which was later expanded into the Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage (2004). Another non-fiction book is Working Miracles: Women's Lives in the English-Speaking Caribbean (1991).

Her book Dying To Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal was published in 2014. This book tells the story of West Indians who helped build the Panama Canal. It was also shortlisted for the 2015 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and won the non-fiction category.

Impact of Her Work

Olive Senior's writing has been turned into plays and broadcast on the BBC and CBC. She also wrote a radio play called Window for the CBC. Her work is included in many different poetry and story collections.

Her books, especially Summer Lightning and Gardening in the Tropics, are often used as textbooks in schools and universities around the world.

Selected Awards and Honours

• 1987: Commonwealth Writers' Prize, for Summer Lightning and Other Stories
• 1988: Silver Musgrave Medal
• 1995: F. G. Bressani Literary Prize for Gardening in the Tropics
• 2004: Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica
• 2015: OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, winner of non-fiction category
• 2016: OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, winner of fiction category and overall winner
• 2021: Appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica
• 2024: Elected as Royal Society of Literature International Writer