false 3472721 1 <DIV>Born in a Jamaica still under British rule, the acclaimed and influential writer Michelle Cliff embraced her many identities, shaped by her experiences with the forces of colonialism and oppression: a light-skinned Creole, a lesbian, an immigrant in both England and the United States. In her celebrated novels and short stories, she has probed the intersection of prejudice and oppression with a rare and striking lyricism. In her first book-length collection of nonfiction, Cliff displays the same poetic intensity, interweaving reflections on her life in Jamaica, England, and the United States with a powerful and sustained critique of racism, homophobia, and social injustice. If I Could Write This in Fire begins by tracing her transatlantic journey from Jamaica to England, coalescing around a graceful, elliptical account of her childhood friendship with Zoe, who is dark-skinned and from an impoverished, rural background; the divergent life courses that each is forced to take; and the class and color tensions that shape their lives as adults. The personal is interspersed with fragments of Jamaica&rsquo;s history and the plight of people of color living both under imperial rule and in contemporary Britain. In other essays and poems, Cliff writes about the discovery of her distinctive, diasporic literary voice, recalls her wild colonial girlhood and sexual awakening, and recounts traveling through an American landscape of racism, colonialism, and genocide—a history of violence embodied in seemingly innocuous souvenirs and tourist sites. A profound meditation on place and displacement, If I Could Write This in Fire explores the complexities of identity as they meet with race, gender, sexuality, nationality, and the legacies of the Middle Passage and European imperialism.</DIV> 3514026 29 8 2008 If I Could Write This in Fire total:11|5:1|4:5|3:4|2:1| 11 39 47 2 3 0 false false Fri Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 22:45:27 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 22:45:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Sep 10 20:37:51 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 10 20:37:57 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Tue Oct 27 07:16:11 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 07:16:14 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 20 08:31:04 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 08:31:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 07:56:50 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 07:56:50 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 05 18:28:26 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 18:28:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Aug 16 10:51:06 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 10:51:06 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 17 16:37:05 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 16:37:05 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jun 26 11:32:52 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 21:14:37 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jun 24 12:20:39 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 12:20:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri May 22 16:30:27 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 00:27:36 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 21:14:07 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 17 11:32:40 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 11:32:40 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Apr 17 20:14:34 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 20:14:34 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Apr 04 14:49:42 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 14:49:51 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Apr 04 01:01:20 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 01:01:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 29 17:15:10 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 17:15:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Mar 25 08:14:15 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 08:14:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Mar 16 13:35:25 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 13:35:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 15 22:23:29 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 22:23:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 12 15:09:13 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 15:09:13 -0700 2009