Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Senior Lecturer in English
Author of two novels and a screenplay. Fields: fiction-writing, screenwriting, postcolonial studies and modern British literature.
My work is concentrated on fiction, film, postcolonial studies, African and Caribbean literature, modern British literature. My teaching, scholarly, and literary interests lie in late 19th through 20th century British poetry and fiction; African and West Indian literature; Shakespeare; drama; film; colonial, postcolonial, and gender issues in literature; the Atlantic Slave Trade and African diaspora in literature; the presence (explicit and implicit) of colonialism, racial stereotypes, and images of Africa and the Caribbean in nineteenth century English literature; and creative writing.
My book The True History of Paradise (1999) was short-listed for the Dublin International I.M.P.A.C. award, and my book The Pirate’s Daughter (2007), was a London Times Best Seller and won the Essence Literary Award for Fiction in 2008.
Other publications include short fiction and articles in Callaloo, The Washington Post, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and Elle magazine. My screenplay, Photo Finish, about a Jamaican-American athlete, was sold to Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
Education
- B.A., Barnard College
- M.A., New York University
- Ph.D., City University of New York
Current and upcoming courses
Short Narrative
ENG203
A workshop in the writing of the short story; emphasis on class discussion of student writing, with reference to older and contemporary established examples of the genre.
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The Art of Screenwriting
ENG204
A creative writing course in a workshop setting for those interested in the theory and practice of writing for film. This course focuses on the full-length feature film, both original screenplays and screen adaptations of literary work. (CAMS 234 and ENG 204 are cross-listed courses.)