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In memoriam: Martin Mordecai 1942-2021

The Editorial Team of the Journal of West Indian Literature, as well as many of our advisors and readers, were saddened to hear about the death of Martin Mordecai in Canada. The father of Rachel Mordecai, who served as a JWIL Editor for many years, and the husband of Pam Mordecai and brother-in-law of Betty Wilson (both contributors to JWIL and the editors of one of the first anthologies of Caribbean women’s writing, Her True True Name), Martin Mordecai was a Jamaican man of words. He worked as a journalist, a civil servant, was one of the main forces behind the publisher Sandberry Press and was an excellent photographer, a poet and a novelist. He published a young-adult novel, Blue Mountain Trouble, and co-authored Culture and Customs of Jamaica with Pam but his place in West Indian literature was consolidated by his historical novel, Free, described by Nalo Hopkinson as “an astounding act of remembrance.” We extend heartfelt sympathy to his family and friends.