Jamaican author and former Jamaica Observer executive Garfield Ellis died last Friday in Canada after a battle with cancer. He was 57.
Ellis, who joined the Observer on January 6, 1997 as circulation manager, served in that position until June 2002 when he was named operations manager. He resigned from the company in May 2004 and migrated.
During his years at the Observer, Ellis established himself as an author and last year won the Una Marson Award for adult literature in the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards for his manuscrip t Land We Love.
That was the third time that Ellis was winning the Una Marson Award, having taken the inaugural prize with Flaming Hearts and Other Stories in 1993 and again in 1999 with Til I’m Laid to Rest.
He was also winner of the Canute A Brodhurst prize for fiction.
Throughout his career Ellis published six books, most recent being The Angels’ Share.
Born on July 25, 1960 in Sandy Hill, St Catherine, Ellis grew up in Central Village, St Catherine, and attended White Marl All-Age School in the parish. From White Marl he went to the St Andrew Technical High School and the Caribbean Maritime Institute (now the Caribbean Maritime University). Ellis later studied creative writing at the University of Miami.
You must log in to post a comment.