A Conversation With...Garfield Ellis

Where were you born? Describe current family life.
  
I was born in a little place in the hills of St. Catherine, called Sandy Hill - two minutes and a line away from St. Faith’s. A little district surrounded by mist covered hillsides, with foot-wide tracks into agricultural grounds deep into the heart of the hills.

I live a quiet life in which I still struggle to carve a little space for my writing. I still wake at four in the mornings to write, and then, get to work by nine. I make sure I get in a bit of golf on the weekends as much for the walk and the exercise as for the game. And I make sure I find time for my family.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I now work as the director of Communications for a government agency. The search for a job to compliment my writing has brought me here.

Who are your three favourite writers? Why?

That’s a hard question – by category, maybe.

Poetry: My poet is Lorna Goodison. She is the most spiritual of all, and she is the minstrel of the common folk. But Martin Carter is a close second.

Caribbean Novelist: Well, George Lamming is high on the list because he is the Master and he writes his vision into his work and his vision is in the possibilities of the Caribbean people.

Then, there is Toni Morrison. She is the standard-bearer for passion and expression. Beloved will last for ages as one of the greatest pieces of artistic expression ever. I measure my work by this standard.

Popular Fiction: Robert Ludlum. I cannot leave him out. Bourne Identity is the second book I totally fell in love with, and which convinced me to follow the path of writing.

Western: I had to find a way to put in Shane by Jack Schaefer.
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Short Story: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, which is really a thirty-page poem.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

The first book I fell in love with was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I was sixteen years old when I read it and still remember lines form it. Still a Classic.

My reading habits haven’t really changed over the years. I prefer interesting books that go to different places in the soul; invite me to somewhere I have never been before. But my reading has widened a bit. I have read a lot more Caribbean stuff of late. I never grew up on them.

What are you reading now?

I am doing a lot of writing now and when I do, I hardly read. But I want to finish The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller.

What makes you laugh?

That is a good question for a writer in Jamaica these days. For sometimes, the laughter is more an expression of sorrow than it is of mirth. But what cracks me up . . . A great Clovis cartoon.

What are your other passions?

My passions are easy: Writing, My children, my woman lying soft against my body, golfing, a great play, walking for great distances and Dennis Brown songs.

About Garfield Ellis

Garfield Ellis   grew up in Jamaica, the eldest of nine children. He studied marine engineering, management and public relations in Jamaica and completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Miami, on full scholarship as a James Michener Fellow.

He is a two-time winner of the Una Marson prize for adult literature; in the first instance for his first collection of short stories, Flaming Hearts (pub. 1997), and later for the still unpublished novel, Till I’m Laid To Rest. He has twice won the Canute A. Brodhurst prize for fiction (The Caribbean Writer, University of Virgin Islands) 2000 & 2005 and the 1990 Heinemann/Lifestyle short story competition.

Garfield is the author of four published books: Flaming Hearts, Wake Rasta, Such As I Have, and For Nothing at All. His work has appeared in several international journals, including Callaloo, Calabash, The Caribbean Writer, and Obsidian III. A fifth book, Till I’m Laid To Rest is due in Spring 2010.

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