Pamela Mordecai



Pamela Claire Mordecai (born 1942 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican teacher, scholar, poet and writer of short fiction. She attended high school in Jamaica and college in the US, where she did a first degree in English. A trained language-arts teacher with a PhD in English, she has taught at secondary and tertiary levels, trained teachers, edited an academic journal, and worked in media and in publishing.

Mordecai has written articles on Caribbean literature, education and publishing, and has collaborated on, or herself written, over thirty books, including textbooks, children’s books, five books of poetry for adults, a collection of short fiction, and (with her husband, Martin) a reference work on Jamaica. She has edited several anthologies. Her poems and stories for children are widely collected and have been used in textbooks in the UK, Canada, the US, West Africa and the Caribbean. Her short stories have been published in journals and anthologies in the Caribbean, the US and Canada.

Mordecai has lived in Canada since 1994, but the Caribbean experience, both in the region and in the diaspora, continues to be the focus of her writing.

Poetry

 * de Man (1995), poetry. ISBN 0-920813-23-2.
 * Certifiable (2001), poetry. ISBN 0-86492-295-7.
 * The True Blue of Islands (2005), poetry. ISBN 1-894528-01-8.

Fiction

 * Pink Icing and other stories (2006), short stories. ISBN 978-1-897178-32-4.

Non-fiction

 * Culture and Customs of Jamaica (with Martin Mordecai) (2001). ISBN 0-313-30534-X.

Poetry

 * Story Poems: a first collection (1987), poetry for children. ISBN 0-602-22876-X
 * Don't Ever Wake a Snake (1991), poems and stories for children. ISBN 976-8070-07-2
 * Ezra's Goldfish and other storypoems (1995), poetry for children. ISBN 978-976-8139-59-7
 * Subversive Sonnets (2012), poetry. ISBN 978-1-894770-94-1

Stories

 * Rohan Goes to Big School (2000), story for children. ISBN 978-0-19-915863-8
 * The Costume Parade (2000), story for children. ISBN 978-0-19-915865-2

Edited

 * Jamaica Woman (ed., with Mervyn Morris) (1980), anthology. ISBN 0-435-98600-7
 * New Caribbean Junior Reader 3 (with Grace Walker Gordon) (1985, new ed. 2004). ISBN 0-602-22675-9
 * New Caribbean Junior Reader 4 (with Grace Walker Gordon) (1986, new ed. 2004). ISBN 0-602-22676-7
 * Journey Poem (1987), poetry. ISBN 976-8001-17-8
 * New Caribbean Infant Reader 1 (with Grace Walker Gordon) (1987). ISBN 978-0-602-26961-6
 * From Our Yard: Jamaican Poetry since Independence (ed.) (1987), anthology. ISBN 976-8017-04-X
 * Her True-True Name (ed., with Elizabeth Wilson) (1989), anthology. ISBN 0-435-98906-5
 * Sunsong Tide Rising (ed., with Grace Walker Gordon) (1994) anthology. ISBN 0-582-08690-6
 * Calling Cards: New Poetry from Caribbean/Canadian Women (ed.) (2005). ISBN 1-894528-02-6
 * New Junior English Revised (with Haydn Richards and Grace Walker Gordon) (2012). ISBN 978-1-4082-8259-5

Plays

 * El Numero Uno, play commissioned by the Young People's Theatre, had its world premiere at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People in February 2010 in Toronto, Canada.