Introducing… Monique Roffey
FMcM Associates
London, United Kingdom
2020-10-15
Robert Greer
‘Introducing…’ is our online interview series to introduce you to some of the amazing authors we’re working with and their brilliant books!
Monique Roffey is an award-winning Trinidadian-born British writer of novels, essays, a memoir and literary journalism. Her novels have been translated into five languages and shortlisted for several major awards and, in 2013, Archipelago won the OCM BOCAS Award for Caribbean Literature. With the Kisses of His Mouth and The Tryst are works which examine female sexuality and desire. Her essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Boundless magazine, The Independent, Wasafiri, and Caribbean Quarterly. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Welcome! To start with, could you tell us a little bit about yourself…
I’m a bi-national writer based in East London. My identity is mixed and fluid in that I was born in Port of Spain, (a city I frequently return to), but I’m also half English. Via my mother, I have Italian, Maltese and Middle Eastern blood. My consciousness, though, has been shaped by my knowledge and understanding of the Caribbean region. Four of my seven books have been set in the Caribbean region. Two of my books have dealt directly with female sexuality and desire. I’d call myself a magical realist as a writer and a practicing Buddhist in my everyday life; everything else is for others to decide. I teach creative writing on the MA/MFA at Manchester Metropolitan University and for the National Writers Centre. I’ve always enjoyed teaching and know, for sure, that the craft of writing can be taught to anyone with a feel for language and an active imagination…
Read the entire interview here.