"An Interview with Lorna Goodison"

In this long interview with Lorna Goodison, considered one of the most accomplished Caribbean women writer, we tried to highlight the main traits of her poetry. Lorna Goodison is one of the finest artist in contemporary world literature, and her works defies reductive categorizing such as Old World/New World or Western/Eastern. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and currently divides her time between Toronto and the United States. She began her artistic career as a painter and still paints most of the covers for her books. We discussed how she succeeded in transferring to the written page the use of light in painting and the “chiaroscuro” technique. Another aspect of her poetry discussed in the interview, is how the memory of the Middle Passage and the uprooting and dispossession of a whole people will always inform her works, even when not openly mentioned. Remembering, as she often repeats, is part of the equipment she has been given as a writer.