Rough Sketch Beginning

James Berry (1924?- ), Jamaican-born British writer and editor of poetry and short stories, whose work reflects the transcultural uniqueness of being "black British," addressing both the West Indian folklore and language and the minority immigrant experience in England. His work also illustrates his belief in the connection between preserving the Jamaican language and preserving Caribbean culture. Born in a Jamaican village, Berry emigrated to London in 1948. He worked in the International Telegraphs Department of the post office from 1951 until 1977, when the award of a C. Day Lewis Fellowship allowed him to write full time.Berry's volumes of poetry include Lucy's Letter and Loving (1982), in which the speaker, Lucy, is an uneducated Jamaican woman who feels alienated in Britain. Chain of Days (1985) was written, it seems, with the influences of the younger performance and jazz poets who followed in Berry's wake. Other volumes of his verse include Fractured Circles (1979); When I Dance (1988), a series of West Indian folktales; and Rough Sketch Beginning (1996), a collection of Jamaican poetry for children. Berry's short stories are collected in A Thief in the Village (1987), narrated from the perspective of young Jamaican children, and Anancy-Spiderman (1988).In 1981 Berry won Britain's National Poetry Competition for his "Fantasy of an African Boy." He is the editor of two anthologies, Bluefoot Traveler: An Anthology of West Indian Poets of Britain (1976) and News for Babylon (1984).Florczak, Robert is the author of 'Rough Sketch Beginning' with ISBN 9780152001124 and ISBN 0152001123.