Marlene nourbese philip biography template

Poet, novelist

Received British-Style Education

Tubman Inspired Novel’s Heroine

Won City Arts Award

Selected writings

Sources

An innovative poet, Marlene Nourbese Philip has used the English language to reflect upon the situation of Africans in the Americas who have been dispossessed of their ancestral languages.

She has written a successful novel for young adults that brought home to Canadian and U.S. readers some of the problems faced by black Canadians of Caribbean origin. Also an activist, Philip has sometimes become embroiled in public controversies in the course of standing up for her beliefs.

Through her writing, Philip has established herself as an articulate explorer of the lives of black Canadians and African Americans generally.

Philip was born on the southern Caribbean island of Tobago in 1947. Born Marlene Philip, she was named after the white German film star Marlene Dietrich—“which I think is quite hilario