New Writing North

Each year we work with the English Department at Durham University to bring an outstanding writer to the city for the festival and to commission a new piece of work from them. While in residence, the Laureate also undertakes special events with students from the university. We were thrilled to welcome award-winning poet Lorna Goodison to Durham as our 2012 Durham Book Festival Laureate. Born in Jamaica, where she grew up as one of nine children, Lorna Goodison is one of the most distinguished writers of her generation. She teaches in the Department of English and the Center for African and African American studies at the University of Michigan. Her many honours include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region), the Gold Musgrave Medal from Jamaica, and the Henry Russel Award from the University of Michigan. Her work includes Goldengrove: New and Selected Poems (2006), Guinea Woman: Selected Poems (2000), Harvey River: A Memoir of my Mother and her People (2007), and most recently a collection of short