Marcia Douglas will speak about her new book, The Marvellous Equations of the Dread.

About the Book:

Reincarnated as a homeless man named Fall-down, Bob Marley sleeps in a clock tower built on the site of a lynching in Half Way Tree, Kingston. No one sees that Fall-down is Bob Marley, except his long-ago love, Leenah. Marcia Douglas’s mythical reworking of three hundred years of violence is a ticket to the deep world of Rasta history. The Marvellous Equations of the Dread tells the twin stories of Jamaica’s nihilistic violence and its wondrously creative humanity and does truthful justice to both.

About the Author:

Marcia Douglas was born in the U.K. and grew up in Jamaica. She is the author of the novels, The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: a Novel in Bass Riddim, Madam Fate and Notes from a Writer’s Book of Cures and Spells as well as a collection of poetry, Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom.

Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies internationally, including Edexcel Anthology for English Language/London Examinations IGCSE, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse, The Forward Book of Poetry, Sisters of Caliban: Contemporary Women Poets of the Caribbean, Cultural Activism: Poetic Voices, Political Voices, Kingston Noir, Jubilation! Poems Celebrating 50 Years of Jamaican Independence, Mojo: Conjure Stories, Whispers from Under the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction, Caribbean Erotic: Poetry, Prose, Essays, The Art of Friction: Where (Non) Fictions Come Together, and Home: An Imagined Landscape.

Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a U.K. Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The Marvellous Equations of the Dread was longlisted for the 2016 Republic of Consciousness Prize and the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. In addition to writing, she performs a one-woman show, Natural Herstory, and teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Co-sponsor: Dept. of English Creative Writing Program