E. A. Markham

Edward Archie Markham FRSL (1 October 1939 – 23 March 2008) was a poet and writer, born in Harris, Montserrat, and mainly resident in the United Kingdom from 1956. Known for poetry in both "nation-language" (patois) and standard English, for short stories and a comic novel, he sometimes used the pseudonym Paul St. Vincent and other personae, and defies simple classification as an author. He edited two significant collections of Caribbean writing, and several literary magazines. His first work was in drama.

His family was large and relatively prosperous. He attended grammar school in Montserrat, and read English and philosophy at the University of Wales, Lampeter. He started academic research into seventeenth century comedy at the University of East Anglia, and then in London. In 1969, while lecturing at Kilburn Polytechnic, he formed the Caribbean Theatre Troupe, which toured Monserrat, Saint Vincent and other parts of the Eastern Caribbean. They performed "The Private Life of the Public Man" and "Dropping Out is Violence".

He then worked in France for two years. His Lambchops poems, written as Paul St. Vincent, started to appear in the mid-1970s, and assume the perspective of a young urban Caribbean man. He would also use the voices of Sally Goodman, a Welsh feminist, Philpot and Maureen, and the character of Pewter Stapleton, an unimpressive academic, in his novel and stories. He built up a reputation gradually as a poet, through small press and chapbook publication.

He joined for a time the performers "The Bluefoot Travellers". In the later 1970s he taught in Manchester, then had writing fellowships in Hull and London (on a C. Day Lewis Fellowship).

In a long itinerant period he took a position for two years 1983-5 in Papua New Guinea, working for Enga province. He followed that with two years editing "Artrage", the magazine of the Minority Arts Advisory Service. He spent 1988-91 at the University of Ulster as a writer-in-residence; he edited "Writing Ulster".

He also lived in Germany and Sweden, and in Britain, in Ipswich and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He served in both the Poetry Society and Poetry Book Society.

He was awarded the Certificate of Honour by the Government of Montserrat, in 1997.

As Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, a position he held until his death, he directed the Hallam Literature Festival. He also edited "Sheffield Thursday" magazine, and ran its competitions for poetry and short stories.

Markham died of a heart attack in Paris on Easter day, 23 March 2008, at the age of 69. [cite web|url= http://voiceofguyana.com/2008/04/09/the-death-of-ea-archie-markham-in-paris/|title= The death of E.A. (Archie) Markham in Paris|accessdate= 2008-04-10|last= Poynting|first= Jeremy|date= 2008-04-09|publisher= Voice of Guyana International]

Works

*Crossfire (1972) poems
*Mad and Other Poems (1973)
*Merely a Matter of Colour (1973) edited with Arnold Kingston, on the Ugandan Asians
*Lambchops (1976) poems, as Paul St Vincent
*Lambchops In Disguise (1976) poems, as Paul St Vincent
*Philpot in the City (1976) poems, as Paul St Vincent
*Love Poems and Maze (1978) poems
*The Lamp (1978)
*Pierrot (1979) story
*Masterclass (1979) poems
*Games and Penalties (1980) poems
*Love, Politics and Food (1982) poems
*Family Matters (1984) poems
*Human Rites: Selected Poems 1970-1982 (1984)
*Lambchops in Papua New Guinea (1986) poems
*Living In Disguise (1986) poems
*Something Unusual (1986) stories
*Hinterland: Caribbean Poetry from the West Indies and Britain (1989) editor
*Hugo versus Montserrat (1989) for hurricane relief, edited with Howard Fergus
*Towards the End of a Century (1989) poems
*Maurice V.'s Dido (1991) poems
*Letter from Ulster and the Hugo Poems (1993) poems
*Ten Stories (1994)
*Misapprehensions (1995) poems
*The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories (1996) editor
*A Papua New Guinea Sojourn: More Pleasures of Exile (1998) autobiographical
*Marking Time (1999) novel
*Fragments of Memory (2000) poems
*A Rough Climate (2002) T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist
*Taking the Drawing Room Through Customs: Selected Stories 1970-2000 (2002)
*John Lewis & Co (2003) poems
*The Selected Poems of Paul St. Vincent and Sally Goodman (2003)

References

*"A Festschrift for E. A. Markham" (1999) edited by Freda Volans and Tracey O'Rourke

External links

* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2276418,00.html "Guardian" Obituary]
* includes a "Critical Perspective" section
* [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3759408.ece "The Widow's Eulogy"] : a poem by E. A. Markham from [http://www.the-tls.co.uk TLS] , April 16 2008.