GEOFFREY PHILP is a Jamaican poet and novelist. Born in 1958 in Kingston, Jamaica, he attended Jamaica College where he studied literature under the tutelage of the poet Dennis Scott (1939-1991). After leaving Jamaica in 1979, he attended the Miami Dade College and later studied Caribbean, African, and African-American literature with Dr. O.R. Dathorne and creative writing with Lester Goran, Evelyn Wilde Mayerson, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. As a James Michener Fellow at the University of Miami, he studied poetry with Kamau Brathwaite and fiction with George Lamming. A retired Miami Dade College professor and alumnus, he lives in Miami, Florida.
Since publication of his first book of poems, Exodus and Other Poems in 1990, he has published six other poetry collections: Florida Bound (1995), Hurricane Center (1998), Xango Music (2001), Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas (2005), Dub Wise (2010), and Archipelagos (2023).
He has also published two books of short stories, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien (1997) and Who’s Your Daddy? and Other Stories (2009), and a novel Benjamin, My Son (2003) which was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. He has also written two children’s books, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories (2007) and Marcus and the Amazons (2011). He is currently working on a graphic novel for children about Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), My Name is Marcus, and a collection of poems, Letter from Marcus Garvey.
His poems and short stories are widely published, appearing in Small Axe, Asili, The Caribbean Writer, Gulf Stream, Florida in Poetry: A History of the Imagination, Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.
In 2022, Philp was awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, for outstanding merit in literature. Other awards earned include the Marcus Garvey Award for Excellence in Education (2022) and a Luminary Award from the Consulate of Jamaica (2015).
Philp posts interviews, fiction, poetry, podcasts, and literary events from the Caribbean and South Florida on his blog: geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com. Also check out his official website at www.geoffreyphilp.com and stories published on Vocal Media.
Photo Credit: Vanessa Diaz