Summer Lightning (short story collection)
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| Author | Olive Senior |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Longman |
Publication date | 1986 |
| Awards | Commonwealth Writer's Prize (1987) Big Jubilee Read (2022) |
| ISBN | 978-0582786271 |
Summer Lightning and other stories is a 1986 collection of short stories by Jamaican writer Olive Senior.[1][2] It won the 1987 Commonwealth Writers' Prize[3] and was selected for the 2022 Big Jubilee Read, a list of 70 titles by Commonwealth writers.[4]
In A History of Literature in the Caribbean: English- and Dutch-speaking countries the stories are described as "scintillating evocations of life in rural Jamaica".[5] Booker Prize winner Marlon James included it in his "My 10 Favorite Books" in a 2016 New York Times piece, saying "The entire future of Caribbean prose is mapped out in this collection of stories, and I don't know a single Caribbean writer who doesn't reread it often".[6]
Senior has said of this book: "I believe Summer Lightning to be a true expression of everyday life in that part of the world I describe, i.e., deep rural Jamaica, in terms of behaviours, beliefs, practices narrated and language used."[7]
Story titles[edit]
The stories in the book are:[8]
- Summer lightning
- Love orange
- Country of the one eye god
- Ascot
- Bright Thursdays
- Real old time t'ing
- Do angels wear brassieres?
- Confirmation day
- The boy who loved ice cream
- Ballad
References[edit]
- ^ Thieme, John (12 July 2019). "'Mixed Worlds': Olive Senior's Summer Lightning". Kunapipi. 16 (2). ISSN 0106-5734. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ O'Callaghan, Evelyn (1986). "Review of Summer Lightning and Other Stories". Journal of West Indian Literature. 1 (1): 92–94. ISSN 0258-8501. JSTOR 23019657.
- ^ "Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners 1987–2007" (PDF). Commonwealth Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ "A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking reign". BBC. 17 April 2022. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ Victor Ramraj (2001). "Short fiction". In Arnold, Albert James; Rodríguez-Luis, Julio; Dash, J. Michael (eds.). A History of Literature in the Caribbean: English- and Dutch-speaking countries. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-90-272-3448-3. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ James, Marlon (13 May 2016). "My 10 Favorite Books". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
- ^ Evans, Lucy (2014). "Rural Communities". Communities in Contemporary Anglophone Caribbean Short Stories. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-78138-118-2.
- ^ Catalogue record for "Summer Lightning". Worldcat. OCLC 39458693. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
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