Internationally acclaimed Jamaican literary artist/poet/ novelist, Lorna Goodison has been named Lemuel A Johnson collegiate professor of literature and Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan.

A release from the University of Michigan reads as follows:

With the endorsement of executive committee of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, we are pleased to recommend the appointment of Lorna Goodison as the Lemuel A. Johnson collegiate professor of English and Afro-American and African studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, for a five-year renewable term, effective September 1, 2009 through August 31, 2014.

Most celebrated voice

Professor Goodison has emerged as the most celebrated voice among her generation of West Indian poets with nine books of poetry, two works of fiction and a memoir. Her work can be situated within the context of the global developments in English language poetry over the last half-century, wherein the focus of creative energy has expanded from the former colonial centre to reside in what were once its colonial outposts. Her poems deal with post-colonial and feminist issues while evoking events of experiences through vivid imagery and the speech rhythms of her native Jamaican English.

Professor Goodison's individual poems and short stories have appeared in a broad range of literary journals, and her literary status has been attested to by her inclusion in The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry (2003), the most prestigious canonising collection in the field, as well as The Longman Anthology of British Literature (2006) and The Longman Anthology of Poetry (2007). Her most recent book, From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People, which won the 2008 British Columbia award for Canadian non-fiction, Canada's largest non-fiction prize. She has also received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1986), the Gold Musgrave Medal (for poetry) from the Institute of Jamaica (1999) and Michigan's Henry Russet award for exceptional creative work (2004), among others. She is frequently invited to appear at major international literary festivals and events from England to Europe to South Africa.

Emotional response

In her last eight years at Michigan, Professor Goodison's teaching has clustered around three successful courses, Introduction to Poetry, Introduction to Afro-Caribbean Studies and a workshop in writing poetry for students in the Master of Fine Arts programme. Evaluations place her near the top and students praise her enthusiasm, compassion, insight, and sense of humour and speak of her emotional response to poetry as inspirational.

She provides a bridge to world literature and her connections have helped attract other world renowned writers to Michigan. Her global reach has been instrumental in facilitating the visits to a campus of a number of major writers and she has been active in building and expanding a global community of English-speaking writers of the African diaspora.