valrie+bloom

Valerie Bloom

BORN:1956 in Claredon, Jamaica

ABOUT HIS/HER LIFE:As a child she was an all day reader and writer. She achieved early writing success when she won a gold medal for a poem submitted in the literary section of the Jamaica National Festival. The influence of the Caribbean is in her poetry. From 1982to1984 Bloom studied English along with African and Caribbean studies at the University of Kent, where she achieved a first class honors degree. In 1995 she was awarded an honorary master's degree for her work as a poet.

ABOUT HIS/HER WORK: Early poems in her collection //Touch Mi Tell Mi// (1983) focused on Jamaican customs, beliefs, traditions, and folk tales and were written in Patois, a conscious reclamation of the language. Later collections such as //The World is Sweet// (2001), //Hot Like Fire// (2002), and //Whoop an Shout// (2004) are a fusion of Patois and standard English and are diverse in the range of poetic forms. Bloom is a popular performance poet, conducts workshops in schools, directs writing courses, and has edited anthologies of poetry, including //On a Camel to the Moon// (2001) and //One River Many Creeks// (2003).