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LAZY THOUGHTS OF LAZY WO
Book by GRACE NICHOLS
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
58 people want to read
About the author
Grace Nichols
71 books58 followersGrace Nichols was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950 and grew up in a small country village on the Guyanese coast. She moved to the city with her family when she was eight, an experience central to her first novel, Whole of a Morning Sky (1986), set in 1960s Guyana in the middle of the country's struggle for independence.
She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977.
Her first poetry collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman, was published in 1983. The book won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a subsequent film adaptation of the book was awarded a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. The book was also dramatised for radio by the BBC. Subsequent poetry collections include The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), and Sunris (1996). She also writes books for children, inspired predominantly by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Everybody Got A Gift (2005) includes new and selected poems, and her collection, Startling the Flying Fish (2006), contains poems which tell the story of the Caribbean.
Her latest books are Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009); and I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010).
Grace Nichols lives in England with her partner, the poet John Agard.
She worked as a teacher and journalist and, as part of a Diploma in Communications at the University of Guyana, spent time in some of the most remote areas of Guyana, a period that influenced her writings and initiated a strong interest in Guyanese folk tales, Amerindian myths and the South American civilisations of the Aztec and Inca. She has lived in the UK since 1977.
Her first poetry collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman, was published in 1983. The book won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and a subsequent film adaptation of the book was awarded a gold medal at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. The book was also dramatised for radio by the BBC. Subsequent poetry collections include The Fat Black Woman's Poems (1984), Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989), and Sunris (1996). She also writes books for children, inspired predominantly by Guyanese folklore and Amerindian legends, including Come on into My Tropical Garden (1988) and Give Yourself a Hug (1994). Everybody Got A Gift (2005) includes new and selected poems, and her collection, Startling the Flying Fish (2006), contains poems which tell the story of the Caribbean.
Her latest books are Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009); and I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (2010).
Grace Nichols lives in England with her partner, the poet John Agard.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2017
I think I like her children's poetry better than her adult poetry, and I definitely love the poems she writes in the English of her native Caribbean (though she was born in Guyana, she identifies with the Caribbean and Britain). A lot of the adult poems are written about her body (or the black woman's body), such as "Who Was It?" (about not shaving her body hair) and "With Apologies to Hamlet" (about having to pee!). I love "Wherever I Hang," about being a black woman from the Caribbean living in England, with the classic last line "Wherever I hang me knickers--that's my home." (p.16) She's got a lovely short poem about Lucy, the prehistoric human unearthed in Africa ("On Lucy"), and a very brief but vivid poem about the stars, comparing them to angel's nipples ("On Stars"). The more I read of Caribbean writers the more I like them. Recommended for something different.
November 16, 2015
I wanted to love this book but sadly didn't, although there two or three really good poems. It feels a little dated now which might have been part of the problem - reminded me of feminist poetry of the 1980s.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews