Saracca and Nation

MERLE COLLINS, teaches Caribbean Literature in the English Department. She has been published in several anthologies of both poetry and fiction. Her short story, “Shadowboxing”, was published in the anthology Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad (Seal Press, 2005). Her publications include two novels, Angel (London: The Women’s Press, 1987; Seattle: Seal Press, 1988) and The Colour of Forgetting (London: Virago Books, 1995), three poetry collections, Because the Dawn Breaks(London: Karia Press, 1985), Rotten Pomerack (London: Virago Books, 1990) and Lady in a Boat (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2003). She has also published a short story collection, Rain Darling (London: The Women’s Press, 1990). Her current project as a MITH Fellow, “In the Footsteps of the Old Heads: Saraka and Nation in the Caribbean” continues a theme started for a 1995 program researched for the BBC and entitled, “From Africa to the Caribbean: A Journey of the Oral Tradition”. Merle Collins won a Guggenheim Fellowship for the 2003-2004 academic year.