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Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Biography People often ask how to pronounce “Cezair”. It’s pronounced “si-zare” (and rhymes with “sincere”). The name “Cezair” comes from my mother’s family; the name “Thompson” is from my father’s family. I was born in Jamaica, West Indies and left when I was nineteen to attend Barnard College in New York. I received my B. A. in English from Barnard College/Columbia University and my Ph.D. in English from the City University of New York where I wrote my dissertation on V.S. Naipaul. Since 1990, I’ve been teaching literature and creative writing at Wellesley College. My first novel, The True History of Paradise, was published by Dutton in 1999, and my son, Ben, was also born that year. I’ve written and published short fiction, essays, reviews, and interviews. My first screenplay, Photo Finish, about a Jamaican-American athlete, was sold to Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions in 1994 (now Harpo-Disney). Although I’ve now lived outside Jamaica for many years, I think of myself as a citizen of both countries (US & Jamaica). I have strong ties to the island and to the many friends and relatives living there. Like some of the characters in my novels, I was a child when Jamaica became an independent nation in 1962, and I’ve witnessed its growth and its changes, sometimes with deep concern, always with great interest. I grew up in a family of two sisters, one brother, divorced yet devoted parents, wonderful aunts, uncles, cousins, memorable dogs and cats. We lived in the suburbs of Kingston and St. Andrew and, while it was a primarily urban-suburban experience, we always maintained a close connection to the rural areas of Jamaica through relatives and close friends. Books/writers of special interest (the ones I read again and again): Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Paule Marshall, Ben Okri, Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul, William Shakespeare (especially the tragedies), Joyce’s Dubliners, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; the poets, Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Derek Walcott. Other interests: Caribbean and African history, movies (all kinds), music, gardening, cooking, soccer, and now, primarily because of my son’s passion for it, baseball. To learn more about me, my background, my work and my interests: |