Earl McKenzie

He taught English, Visual Art and Education at Church Teachers' College, Mandeville, Jamaica for 25 years, and for 15 years was a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of the West Indies, Mona. He is now retired. In 2000, he was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal for his contribution to Literature. In 2011, he recieved a Mico University College 175th Anniversary Award for distinguished service.

In addition to his poetry in Against Linearity (Peepal Tree, 1993) and The Almond Leaf (Peepal Tree, 2008), he is the author of a book of short stories, A Boy Named Ossie: A Jamaican Childhood (Heinemann, 1991), Two Roads to Mount Joyful & Other Stories (Longman, 1992) and Ernest Palmer's Dream and Other Stories (LMH, 2014), The Rooms of His Life: A Novel (Arawak, 2017), A Bluebird Named Poetry: Linked Poems. Stores and Painting (Arawak, 2012), The Flame of the Forest:Memoirs of Church Teachers' College (Arawak, 2015), and  A Country Boy:More Ossie Stories (LMH, 2019). 

His work has appeared in the following anthologies: Caribbean New Wave, Crossing Water, The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories, Travellers Literary Companion: Caribbean, Perspectives, Bearing Witness 1&2, So Much Things to Say, The Bowling Was Superfine:West Indian Writing and West Indian Cricket,Jubilation! Poems Celebrating 50 Years of Jamaican Independence, and Queen's  Case:A Collection of Contemporarary Jamaican Short Stories. 

His academic publications include Philosophy in the West Indian Novel (UWI Press, 2009), The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher And Other Essays (Arawak, 2013), and Democratic Socialism  and Education in Jamaica: A Philosophic Study (Arawak, in press).

You can see lots of his art on his website earlmckenzie.net.