Valerie Bloom



Valerie Bloom MBE (born c. 1956 in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica) is a poet and a novelist.

Early years
Born in Jamaica, Bloom moved to England in 1979. She attended the University of Kent at Canterbury and earned an honours degree, and was later awarded an honorary Masters degree. She has been living in Kent ever since.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Her works
She has published several collections, the most recent of which is Whoop an' Shout!. Her first collection was Touch Mi, Tell Mi and this was followed by Duppy Jamboree, Let me Touch the Sky, The World is Sweet and Hot like Fire. She has also edited a number of collections including One River Many Creeks  and A Twist in the Tale and her poems have appeared in over three hundred anthologies.

Her first novel was Surprising Joy. Her latest novel, The Tribe, was published by Macmillan Children's Books. She writes poetry both in English and Jamaican patois. Many of her performances include a 'crash course' in patois for audience members unfamiliar with the language. She has performed widely throughout the UK and abroad and has appeared on many radio and TV programmes. In 2005, she made a series of three programmes focusing on Jamaican poetry for BBC Radio 4 entitled Island Voices.