The spoken and the written word: Jamaican Creole and the language of the Bible in Olive Senior's early fiction

Abstract

Olive Senior is the author of three books of poetry – Talking of Trees (1986), Gardening in the Tropics (1994), Over the Roofs of the World (2005) – four of non-fiction on Jamaican society and culture, and three of short stories: Summer Lightning and Other Stories (1986), Arrival of the Snake-Woman and Other Stories (1989), and The Discerner of Hearts (1995). Her first short story collection won the inaugural Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1987.