Michael Anthony

Michael Anthony was born in Mayaro on 10th February, 1930. He attended the Mayaro Roman Catholic School. The Mayaro landscape later provided much inspiration for his books. He has often said that being born in such a beautiful place like Mayaro had always given him thoughts of being a writer in order to describe it. In this he has acknowledged he has failed. When he was eleven he spent a year in San Fernando , and the story of his year there was a sort of inspiration for his second novel, “The Year in San Fernando .” Michael Anthony could be said to have begun his career at 23, when he began having poems published in the Trinidad Guardian. Although his first love was poetry he looked forward to writing prose. At 24, in 1954, he went to England, where he began writing short stories for a BBC literary programme for West Indian writers, called “Caribbean Voices.” As a result of the closure of the programme in 1958, he made his first attempt at a novel. Not finding that particular attempt satisfactory he tried another, which dealt with the annual “Southern Games” at Guaracara Park , Pointe-à-Pierre, where he worked at the oil refinery. The publication of this novel set him on the road he had always wanted. He then wrote “The Year in San Fernando” (1965) and “Green. Days by the River” (1968) Illness caused him to leave the cold English climate in 1968, and finding no job at home in Trinidad he opted to go to Brazil. There he spent two years. Because of a number of considerations including economic and family, he returned to Trinidad in 1970 and has been here ever since. Michael Anthony received the Humming Bird gold medal at the National Awards ceremony of August 31, 1979, and he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D. Litt.) at the University of the West Indies Graduation Exercises of October 31, 2003. Up to the moment he has written 31 books and is busy at work on his 32nd. NALIS (the National Library of Trinidad and Tobago) was kind to him in 2003 to install, under their auspices, a full collection of his work in the NALIS library at Pierreville, Mayaro, and they even indulged him in 2005 when they purchased some of his later papers, being housed at their headquarters library in Port-of-Spain. (Some of his earlier papers had been acquired by the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine in 2003)