by Sarah Onyango
On Saturday, April 25, 2015, Olive Senior, a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction writer currently living in Toronto, was one of the featured authors at the Spring 2015 edition of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, at Christ Church Cathedral.
In an on-stage conversation with CBC News Ottawa anchor Adrian Harewood, Ms. Senior presented her latest book entitled “Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal with Olive Senior”. In this volume, she focuses on the neglected post-emancipation generation of the 1850s who were lured to Panama by the promise of lucrative work and who initiated a pattern of circular migration that would transform the islands economically, socially and politically well into the twentieth century.
Well-known for her prize winning works of fiction and poetry. Her Encyclopedia of Jamaican Heritage and other non-fiction books have also earned high praise from scholars, historians, and the general reader for her meticulous research and her ability to transform complex material into works that are accurate and accessible to a wide audience, the aim also of Dying to Better Themselves. Her many awards include the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Gold Medal of the Institute of Jamaica.
