Michelle Cliff’s Followers (56)

Michelle Cliff

Born

in Kingston, Jamaica

November 02, 1946

Died

June 12, 2016

Genre

Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Literary Criticism

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Michelle Cliff (born 2 November 1946) is a Jamaican-American author whose notable works include No Telephone to Heaven, Abeng and Free Enterprise.

Cliff also has written short stories, prose poems and works of literary criticism. Her works explore the various, complex identity problems that stem from post-colonialism, as well as the difficulty of establishing an authentic, individual identity despite race and gender constructs. Cliff is a lesbian who grew up in Jamaica.

Cliff was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1946 and moved with her family to New York City three years later. She was educated at Wagner College and the Warburg Institute at the University of London. She has held academic positions at several colleges including Trinity College an ...more

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Michelle Cliff’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 3,950 ratings · 267 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors

	No Telephone to Heaven 3.80 avg rating — 1,298 ratings — published 1987 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Abeng 3.71 avg rating — 967 ratings — published 1984 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Free Enterprise: A Novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant 3.56 avg rating — 203 ratings — published 1993 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	If I Could Write This in Fire 3.89 avg rating — 117 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Claiming an Identity They Taught Me to Despise 4.31 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 1980 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bodies of Water 3.68 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1990 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Store of a Million Items: Stories 3.26 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1998	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Into the Interior 3.48 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2010 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everything Is Now: New and Collected Stories 3.60 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2009 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Land of Look Behind 4.19 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1985 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Michelle Cliff…

Series by Michelle Cliff

Clare Savage (2 books)
by

Michelle Cliff

3.76 avg rating — 2,265 ratings

Quotes by Michelle Cliff (?)

“Who can say how many lives have been saved by books?”
― Michelle Cliff, Everything Is Now: New and Collected Stories

tags: books

6 likes

“One of the effects of indoctrination, of passing into the anglo-centrism of British West Indian culture, is that you believe absolutely in the hegemony of the King's English and in the proper forms of expression. Or else your writing is not literature; it is folklore, or worse. And folklore can never be art. Read some poetry by West Indian writers--some, not all--and you will see what I mean. The reader has to dissect anglican stanza after anglican stanza for Caribbean truth, and may never find it. The anglican ideal -- Milton, Wordsworth, Keats -- was held before us with an assurance that we were unable, and would never be able, to achieve such excellence. We crouched outside the cave.”
― Michelle Cliff, If I Could Write This in Fire

4 likes

“It was never a question of passing. It was a question of hiding. Behind Black and white perceptions of who we were -- who they thought we were. Tropics. Plantations. Calypso. Cricket. We were the people with the musical voices and the coronation mugs on our parlor tables. I would be whatever figurine these foreign imaginations cared for me to be. It would be so simple to let others fill in for me. So easy to startle them with a flash of anger when their visions got out of hand -- but never to sustain the anger for myself. It would be a life lived within myself. A life cut off. I know who I am but you will never know who I am. I may in fact lose touch with who I am.”
― Michelle Cliff, If I Could Write This in Fire

4 likes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Literary Fiction ...: Discussion: This Is How You Lose Her	213	219	Dec 31, 2012 03:35PM
Caribbean Authors: Jamaica - Netherlands Antilles	3	94	Oct 22, 2013 07:04AM
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500 Great Books B...: * Women of Color	4	374	Dec 15, 2015 01:11PM
100+ Books in 2024: Aubrey - 2016 - 100+	2	18	Feb 26, 2016 07:47PM

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Michelle Cliff’s Followers (56)

Michelle Cliff

Combine EditionsMichelle Cliff’s books

Series by Michelle Cliff

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Michelle Cliff’s books