Hazel Campbell

Hazel Campbell was born in Jamaica in 1940. She attended Merl Grove High School and obtained a BA in English & Spanish at UWI, Mona, followed by Diplomas in Mass Communications and Management Studies.
Before her retirement she worked as a teacher, as a public relations worker, editor, features writer and video producer for the Jamaican Information Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Creative Production and Training Centre; later she worked as a freelance Communications Consultant.

Her first publication was The Rag Doll & Other Stories (Savacou, 1978), followed by Women’s Tongue (Savacou, 1985) and then Singerman (Peepal Tree, 1991). Her stories have also been published in West Indian Stories, ed. John Wickham, 1981; Caribanthology I, ed. Bruce St. John, 1981; Focus 1983; and Facing the Sea, ed. Anne Walmesley, 1986. After Singerman she concentrated on writing for children. Her publications include Tilly Bummie, Ramgoat Dashalong, Juice Box and Scandal, Follow the Peacock and others.

Hazel Campbell wrote of herself in 1990: “Child of the 1940s when nationalism was raising its head in Jamaica, I attended schools where patriotism and budding political movements were regarded as extremely important. In spite of the pervasive use of foreign texts, we were encouraged to think Jamaican. This consciousness has remained with me to the extent that I get physically uncomfortable if I am away from Jamaica for too long a time. Perhaps that’s why I never migrated and why my work reflects almost a ‘romantic’ view of Jamaica – its people, landscape and the very peculiar aura which makes it difficult to understand; difficult to live in; but nevertheless such an enchanting country.”
She lived for much of her life in Constance Spring. Read Jeremy Poynting's obituary