Lorna Goodison

Lorna Goodison is the first female Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2017–2020). She is the author of sixteen poetry collections, three short story collections, and the award-winning autobiography “From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People” (McClelland & Stewart 2007).

Her “Collected Poems” was published in 2017 by Carcanet Press UK. Most recently, the volume “Dante’s Inferno” (Carcanet Press UK) was published in 2025. She has received numerous awards for her writing including the 2019 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the Gold Musgrave Medal from Jamaica for her services to Literature. Lorna Goodison is Professor Emerita at University of Michigan, where she was the Lemuel A. Johnson Professor of English and African and Afroamerican Studies.