The Merle Collins Bibliography

Primary Sources

Novels

Angel (London: Women's Press, 1987). Published in revised version under the same title (London: Peepal Tree Press, 2011).
The Colour of Forgetting (London: Virago, 1995).

Extracts from Novels

Extract from Angel, in Her True-True Name, ed. Pamela Mordecai & Betty Wilson (Oxford: Heinemann, 1989), pp. 172-178.
'From Streams of Water', Conjunctions 41 (Fall 2003), pp. 121-152.

Collections of Short Stories

Rain Darling: Stories (London: Women's Press, 1990).
The Ladies Are Upstairs (Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2011).

Short Stories Published in Journals and Anthologies

'My Sister Cherish', in Such Devoted Sisters: An Anthology of Stories, ed. Shena Mackay (London: Virago, 1993).
'The Ladies Are Upstairs', in By the Light of the Silvery Moon, ed. Ruth Petrie (London: Virago, 1994).
'Madelene', in The Whistling Bird: Women Writers from the Caribbean, ed. Elaine Campbell & Pierrette Frickey (Kingston: Ian Randle, 1998; Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), pp. 57-70. Also in Rain Darling.
'The Walk', in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, ed. Stewart Brown & John Wickham (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999), pp. 366-371. Also in Rain Darling.
'Shadowboxing', in Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, ed. Elizabeth Nunez & Jennifer Sparrow (Emeryville, CA: Seale Press, 2006), pp. 58-69.
'The Wealth of the Dreams', TriQuarterly 120 (2004): 49-56.

Edited Collections

Watchers and Seekers: Creative Writing by Black Women in Britain, ed. Rhonda Cobham & Merle Collins (London: Women's Press, 1987; New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1988).
Inside Ant's Belly: A Collection of Stories for Young People, ed. Merle Collins & Marva Buchanan (Sheffield: National Association for the Teaching of English, 1993).

Short Stories Published in Journals and Anthologies

'My Sister Cherish', in Such Devoted Sisters: An Anthology of Stories, ed. Shena Mackay (London: Virago, 1993).
'The Ladies Are Upstairs', in By the Light of the Silvery Moon, ed. Ruth Petrie (London: Virago, 1994).
'Madelene', in The Whistling Bird: Women Writers from the Caribbean, ed. Elaine Campbell & Pierrette Frickey (Kingston: Ian Randle, 1998; Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), pp. 57-70. Also in Rain Darling.
'The Walk', in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, ed. Stewart Brown & John Wickham (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999), pp. 366-371. Also in Rain Darling.
'The Ladies Are Upstairs', in Poui: Cave Hill Literary Annual 3 (2001), pp. 58-63. Also in The Ladies Are Upstairs.
'Shadowboxing', in Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, ed. Elizabeth Nunez & Jennifer Sparrow (Emeryville, CA: Seale Press, 2006), pp. 58-69.
'The Wealth of the Dreams', TriQuarterly 120 (2004): 49-56.

Poems

Collections of poems

Because the Dawn Breaks: Poems Dedicated to the Grenadian People (London: Karia, 1985).
Rotten Pomerack (London: Virago, 1992).
Lady in a Boat (Leeds: Peepal Tree, 2003).

Poems Published in Journals and Anthologies

Poems, in Callaloo: A Grenada Anthology (London: Young World Books, 1984), pp. 40-58.
'The Signs', Caribbean Quarterly 41.2 (June 1995), p. vii.
'Poems' ('Because the Dawn Breaks', 'Callaloo', 'The Lesson' and 'For Jackie'), Caribbean Quarterly 35.1&2 (1989), pp. 46-55.
'Because the Dawn Breaks' & 'Trapped', in The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry, ed. Ian McDonald & Stewart Brown (Oxford: Heinemann, 1992), pp. 53-55.
'No Dialects Please', in Grandchildren of Albion: An Illustrated Anthology of Voices and Visions of Younger Poets in Britain, ed. Michael Horovitz (Stroud: New Departures, 1992).
'Two Poems' ('Crick Crack' and 'Nabel String'), Conjunctions 27 (Fall 1996), pp. 193-198.
Penguin Modern Poets, vol. 8: Jackie Kay, Merle Collins, Grace Nichols (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1996).
'Butterfly Born', in Sisters of Caliban: Contemporary Women Poets of the Caribbean - A Multilingual Anthology, ed. M.J. Fenwick (Falls Church, VA: Azul, 1996), p. 79.
'Hoping' and 'The Sheep and the Goats', in Bittersweet: Contemporary Black Women's Poetry, ed. Karen McCarthy (London: Women's Press, 1998).
'The Sheep and the Goats', 'When Britain Had Its GREAT', and 'A Journey', in Empire Windrush: Fifty Years of Writing about Black Britain, ed. Onyekachi Wambu (London: Victor Gollancz, 1999), pp. 169-171, 226-227 & 335. From the collection Rotten Pomerack. Also published in Hurricane Hits England: An Anthology of Writing about Black Britain, ed. Onyekachi Wambu (London: Continuum, 2000).
'When Britain Had Its GREAT' and 'Visiting Yorkshire Again', in Writing Black Britain: 1948-98: An Interdisciplinary Anthology, ed. James Procter (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 204-207. Also in Rotten Pomerack.
'Tottenham', in IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, ed. Courttia Newland & Kadija Sesay (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000), pp. 15-16.
'Nearly Ten Years Later', in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse, ed. Stewart Brown & John Wickham (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005), pp. 255-257.
'Callaloo', Callaloo 30.1 (Winter 2007), pp. 238-241. Also in Before the Dawn Breaks.
'Because the Dawn Breaks', Caribbean Quarterly 54.1&2 (2008), pp. 95-96.
'Quality Time', in Beyond Sangre Grande: Caribbean Writing Today, ed. Cyril Dabydeen (Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2011). Also in Lady in a Boat.
'Visiting Yorkshire - Again', 'For the Lumb Bank Group, December 1991', 'Contents note continued: The Lumb Bank Children', and 'Soon Come', in Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets, ed. Jackie Kay, James Procter & Gemma Robinson (Newcastle: Newcastle University / Tarset: Bloodaxe, 2012).

Non-Fiction

Biography

The Governor's Story: The Authorised Biography of Dame Hilda Bynoe (Leeds: Peepal Tree, 2013).

Articles & Essays

'Women Writers from the Caribbean', Spare Rib 194 (September 1988), pp. 18-22.
'The Writer in Residence', Wasafiri 4.8 (1988), pp. 9-10.
'Two Writers from the Caribbean: Joan Riley and Jacob Ross', Storms of the Heart: An Anthology of Black Arts and Culture, ed. Kwesi Owusu (London: Camden Press, 1988), pp. 153-160.
'Themes and Trends in Caribbean Writing Today', in From My Guy to Sci-Fi: Genre and Women's Writing in the Postmodern World, ed. Helen Carr (London: Pandora Press, 1989), pp. 179-190.
Introduction, in Two Stories from Grenada, by Jean Buffong & Nellie Payne (London: Women's Press, 1990).
Introduction, in Style in Performance, by SuAndi (Manchester: Pink Heater Press, 1991).
'"To Be Free Is Very Sweet',
Slavery and Abolition 15.3 (1994), pp. 96-103. Review of two books by Moira Ferguson, Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery, 1670-1834 (1992) and The Hart Sisters: Early African Caribbean Writers, Evangelicals, and Radicals (1993).
'Grenada - Ten Years and More: Memory and Collective Responsibility', Caribbean Quarterly 41.2 (June 1995), pp. 71-78.
'Framing the Word: Caribbean Women's Writing', in Framing the Word: Gender and Genre in Caribbean Women's Writing, ed. Joan Anim-Addo (London: Whiting & Birch), 1996), pp. 4-11.
'Channels of Discovery: Perceptions of Culture and Sovereignty in the Caribbean', in US-Caribbean Relations: Their Impact on Peoples and Culture, ed. R.W. Palmer (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998), pp. 117-128.
'Orality and Writing: A Revisitation', Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Woman Writers and Scholars, ed. Adele S. Newson & Linda Strong-Leek (New York: Peter Lang, 1998), pp. 37-45.
'Sometimes You Have to Drink Vinegar and Pretend You Think Is Honey: Race, Class and Man-Woman Talk', in Caribbean Portraits: Essays on Gender Ideologies and Identities, ed. Christine Barrow (Kingston: Ian Randle, 1998).
'Writing and Creole Language Politics: Voice and Story', in Caribbean Creolization: Reflections on the Cultural Dynamics of Language, Literature, and Identity, ed. Kathleen M. Balutansky & Marie-Agnès Sourieau (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1998; Gainesville: Library Press@UF, 2017), pp. 89-95.
'Writing Fiction, Writing Reality', in Caribbean Women Writers Fiction in English, ed. Mary Condé & Thorunn Lonsdale (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999), pp. 23-31.
'Envoy: "The Word - In the Beginning"', in The Tempest and its Travels, ed. Peter Hulme & William H. Sherma (London: Reaktion, 2000), pp. 265-268.
'Up and Down the Deck', Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui 12.1 (2002), pp. 159-160.
'Tout Moun ka Pléwé (Everybody Bawling)', small axe 11.1 [22] (February 2007), pp. 1-16.
'Are You a Bolshevik or a Menshevik? Mimicry, Alienation and Confusion in the Grenada Revolution', Interventions 12.1 (2010), pp. 35-45. Also published in The Legacies of Caribbean Radical Politics ed. Shalini Puri (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), pp. 25-35.
'What Happened? Grenada: A Retrospective Journey', Social and Economic Studies 62.3&4 (September/December 2013), pp. 15-44. Also published in Grenada: Revolution and Invasion, ed. Patsy Lewis, Gary Williams, & Peter Clegg (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2015).
'A Caribbean Story: Grenada's Journey - Possibilities, Contradictions, Lessons', Caribbean Quarterly 60.1 (2014), pp. 23-41.
Review of The World is a High Hill: Stories about Jamaican Women, by Erna Brodber, and Ten Days in Jamaica, by Ifeona Fulani, Wasafiri 29.1 (March 2014), pp. 84-85.
'Foreword', in The Grenada Revolution: Reflections and Lessons', ed. Wendy C. Grenade (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015), pp. vii-ix.
'Of Libraries, Anniversaries and Archives: A Grenada Library Story', Caribbean Quarterly 62.3&4 (2016), pp. 445-456.
'Bynoe, Hilda', in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, ed. Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
Review of Caribbean Spaces: Escapes from Twilight Zones, by Carole Boyce Davies, New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 90.1&2 (2016), pp. 151-152.
'Understanding through Poetry: A Story of the Grenadian Revolutionary Journey', in Perspectives on the Grenada Revolution, 1979-1983, ed. Nicole Phillip-Dowe & John Angus Martin (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), pp. 85-98.
Review of Frontiers of the Caribbean, by Philip Nanton, New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 92.3&4 (2018), pp. 379-380.
'Louise Langdon Norton Little, Mother of Malcolm X', Caribbean Quarterly 66.3 (2020), pp. 346-369.
'Explorations of the Self', in Caribbean Literature in Transition, Volume 2, 1920-1970, ed. Raphael Dalleo & Curdella Forbes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 98-112.

PhD Thesis

'Grenada: A Political History: 1950-1979', London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK, 1990.

Documentary

Producer of Saracca and Nation: African Memory and Re-Creation in Grenada (Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, 2009).

Interviews

'An Interview with Merle Collins', by Betty Wilson, Callaloo 16.1 (Winter 1993), pp. 94-107.
'"We Speak Because We Dream": Conversations with Merle Collins', by Brenda Berrian, in Moving beyond Boundaries, vol. 2: Black Women's Diasporas, ed. Carole Boyce Davies (New York: New York University Press, 1994), pp. 31-42.
'"This Language Taking Shape': An Interview with Merle Collins', Sage 9.2 (1995), pp. 82-85.
'Merle Collins - b. 1950', by Thorunn Lonsdale, Journal of the Short Story in English 41 (Autumn 2003), pp. 299-301. Originally published in issue 26 (1996).
'Working Out Grenada: An Interview with Merle Collins', by Jacqueline Bishop and Dolace Nicole McLean, Calabash 3.2 (Fall-Winter 2005), pp. 53-65.
'The Fragility of Memory: An Interview with Merle Collins', by David Scott, small axe 14.1 [31] (2010), pp. 79-163.
'An interview with Dr Merle Collins', by Shirley Anstis, Today Magazine, Autumn 2013. Repr. online on They Call Me..., 25 January 2014.

In Translation

'La lección', in Poetas del Caribe inglés: Antología, vol. 1, ed. and trans. Keith Ellis (Caracas: El Perro y la Rana, 2009), pp. 90-106.

Miscellaneous

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