Elly Niland
Elly Niland (born 1954) is a Guyanese-born poet, playwright and teacher.
Her first collection of poetry was nominated for Best First Book of Poetry[1] and was runner up for the Guyana Prize for Literature 2004.[2] Her second collection Cornerstones won the Guyana Prize for Literature 2006.[3][4] Her third collection, East of Centre, was funded by the British Arts Council and launched with several of the regions' leading writers at CARIFESTA 2008.
Early life and education[edit]
Niland was born in Guyana on the Courantyne coast in 1954, and has lived in Surrey, England, with her husband and children since 1971. After studying as a mature student at Hillcroft College in Britain, she went on to read for her Modern Arts degree at Kingston University and then to take her Postgraduate Certificate in Education.[2] She is the older sister of writer and broadcaster David Dabydeen.[5][6]
Collaborations[edit]
Elly Niland and David Dabydeen dramatised Harold Sonny Ladoo’s short novel No Pain Like This Body – depicting the terrifying world of a family brutalised by violence, poverty and nature itself. Set in a Hindu community in the Eastern Caribbean in 1905 during the August rainy season, it centres on a poor rice-growing family's struggle to survive. No Pain Like this Body was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2003.
"The Fog", a story about a sickness spreading across Malaysia, was specially commissioned for the BBC's Commonwealth Stories season and was read by Liz Sutherland on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.
Fiction[edit]
"Market Day", from her Bone Soup collection, was shortlisted for the inaugural Guardian and 4th Estate short story prize in 2016.[7][8]
Niland is currently working on a collection of creole stories set in a fictional village in Guyana.
Works[edit]
- Inretrospect (Aeneas Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-902115-31-3)
- Cornerstones (Dido Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-902115-47-4)
- East of Centre (Dido Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-902115-63-4)
Prizes[edit]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Paquet, Sandra Pouchet, "Guyana Prize for Literature: Judges Report", Stabroek News, 26 August 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ^ a b c Mair, John, "Kingston (Surrey) teacher in line for Guyana Prize", Stabroek News, 13 August 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ^ "Guyana Prize Winners Announced", Stabroek News, 24 August 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ^ a b Creighton, Al. "The Guyana Prize for Literature 2006", Guyana Review, Vol. 15, Issue No. 177, September 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
- ^ "Reconnecting with the roots". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ "Selected Poems by Elly Niland". Guyana Chronicle. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
- ^ "Prize longlist". 4th Estate. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ "Guardian and 4th Estate BAME prize reaches out to untapped talent". The Guardian. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- 1954 births
- Living people
- Guyanese poets
- Guyanese women writers
- Guyanese dramatists and playwrights
- British people of Indo-Guyanese descent
- Guyanese emigrants to England
- Alumni of Kingston University
- Guyanese women poets
- Guyanese women dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century poets
- 20th-century British women writers
- 21st-century British women writers
- 20th-century Guyanese writers
- 21st-century Guyanese writers
- Guyanese people of Indian descent
- British poets
- British women poets