Manley, Rachel 1947-

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MANLEY, Rachel 1947-

PERSONAL: Born July 3, 1947, in Cornwall, England; daughter of Michael (a trade unionist, politician, and prime minister of Jamaica) and Jacqueline (a librarian; maiden name, Gill) Manley; married Paul Ennevor (a builder; marriage ended); married Israel Cinman (a journalist); children: Drummond Druh, Luke Ennevor. Ethnicity: "Jamaican." Education: University of the West Indies, B.A. (with honors); also attended Radcliffe College, Harvard University. Politics: Democratic Socialist. Religion: Methodist.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House Canada, 33 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

CAREER: Worked as a teacher at a secondary school in Jamaica in the 1970s; Caribbean Broadcasting, deputy director of advertising in Barbados, 1980-82, director of advertising, 1982-86; writer. Member of Edna Manley Foundation.

AWARDS, HONORS: Century Medal for poetry, Institute of Jamaica, 1979; Canadian Governor General's Award for nonfiction, 1997, for Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood; Bunting fellow, 1999; Rockefeller Foundation fellow, 2000; Guggenheim fellow in Bellagio, Italy, 2001-02.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Edna Manley: The Diaries, Andre Deutsch (London, England), 1989.

A Light Left On (poetry), People Tree Press (Yorkshire, England), 1992.

Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood, Knopf (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Slipstream: A Daughter Remembers, Knopf (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2000.

Author of additional poetry collections.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel.

SIDELIGHTS: Rachel Manley told CA: "I simply cannot help writing. It is my voice. My work is influenced by my late grandparents, Norman and Edna Manley, and the national and cultural movements of Jamaica. My subjects chose me; they were out of the ordinary, and I had the extraordinary good fortune to be placed as a bystander to their unfolding."