The University of the Virgin Islands is proud to announce the
addition of Jamaican author Opal Palmer Adisa to its teaching
staff. Dr. Adisa, author of 14 books, describes herself as an
accomplished storyteller in the Afro-Caribbean tradition. In
addition to joining the UVI faculty as a part-time instructor,
Adisa also has been appointed editor of The Caribbean
Writer, UVI's anthology of Caribbean literature, which she,
with her own talents, helped make famous.
The works of this Caribbean poet, educator and author appear in
over 200 publications and have been praised as vivid and
impassioned, filled with courage and integrity.
Born in Jamaica in 1954 to middle-class parents, Adisa traveled to
New York at the age of 16, and enrolled in Hunter College (City
University of New York) a few years later. For the next 20 years
she pursued higher education, obtaining two masters degrees from
San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. from the University of
California at Berkeley in 1992. By then she had already published
four books.
Her first book, a children's story called Pina: The Many-Eyed
Fruit, was published in 1986, followed by Bake Face and
other Guava Stories that same year. A poetry collection
entitled Traveling Women was published in 1989, then in
1992 Adisa produced her second book of poetry, Tamarind and
Mango Women.
Recognition of Adisa's works has brought many awards, including
three for works published in UVI's The Caribbean Writer,
an annual showcase of the region's best literary talent. In 1995
the Virgin Islands Daily News awarded her its prize for best poems.
The following year she won the top prize, the Canute A. Brodhurst
Prize for Best Story for "the Brethren," and repeated that honor in
2004, winning best prize for "Conscious is the Same as Do
Right."
In the late 1990s she was appointed to the Caribbean Writer's
Advisor Editorial Board where she served for close to a
decade.
In subsequent years, while broadening her academic background,
Adisa published eleven more books; poetry collections in Leaf
of Life (2000) and Caribbean Passion (2004). There
was an essay about the inspiration to write in Eros Muse
(2006) and reflections on the lives of Jamaican men in Until
Judgement Comes (2007). She published an anthology of poetry
and prose in 2008 called I Name Me Name. Most recently
Adisa wrote Conscious Living, described as a chapbook, and
selected poems and essays, Caribbean Erotica, both in
2009.
Her international studies have taken her to Egypt under a
Fullbright Institute Bi-National fellowship. She also studied in
Brazil at the Sacatar Institute. Before studying abroad she
attended the McColl Center for Visual Arts in North Carolina and
the Headlands Center for the Arts in California. Eventually she was
named full professor of Creative Writing, Literature and Diversity
Studies at the California College of the Arts in Sausalito,
Calif.
A career formed with the written word also brought opportunities
with the spoken word. Adisa has distinguished herself outside the
classroom as a motivational speaker and as a broadcaster on
Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM in Berkeley, Calif.
In the spring of 2010, Opal Palmer Adisa joins UVI
Playwright-in-Residence Dr. Doug Larche, Artistic Director and
Playwright-in-Residence of UVI Theatre, to teach the creative use
of the written word.
Larche is a prolific playwright whose works are frequently staged.
He is also a Senior American Fulbright Scholar and winner of
several playwriting gold medals. Last spring, Larche wrote a play
about a famous 18th century abolitionist, called "Truth
on Trial: The Ballad of Sojourner Truth," performed as part of
UVI's Little Theatre at Pistarckle Theater on St. Thomas.
Dr. Larche earned an MFA in Playwriting as a Norman Felton Fellow
at the world-famous University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and his
Ph.D. from Indiana University. He did three post-doctoral
residencies in dramatic writing, screenwriting and dramaturgy from
Yale, Harvard and Oxford University in England. He was the founding
artistic director of The Prairie Playwright Workshop and Festival
of Original Drama at Grand View College, The Bards on the Bay
Northwoods Playwrights Festival and the Workshop at Theatre on the
Bay of the University of Wisconsin, Marinette.
This year Larche plans to include works from students taking part
in the spring playwriting class in a playwrights festival called
"Bards on the Beach: Playwrights in Paradise."
The UVI playwright-in-residence says he's looking forward to seeing
what his class will produce. "Over a period of 13 years, we grew
scores of writers, did nearly 200 public readings, and staged
fully-mounted productions or readers theatre productions of nearly
80 world premieres, several of which went on to publication,
production and to win festivals and the Ukrainian National
Playwriting Prize." He continued, "I am very excited to hear the
many Caribbean and other voices that will be brought to this common
table - personal, historical, cultural, political, ethical - from
folk tradition to magic realism to cutting edge issues and
relationships - and the interplay of art forms, genres and
media."