Valerie Bloom was a Jamaican before she came to England in 1979. After studying English with African and Caribbean Studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury, she started wiring poems in English and Jamaican patois for all ages. She has performed her work throughout the world, with many television and radio appearances. Her poetry is included in a number of anthologies. I guess "The River" could be one of them.She tutors regularly for schools and colleges too.
Her books include the Jamaican poetry collections Touch mi! Tell mi! (1983); and Duppy Jamboree and other Jamaican Poems (1991); Hot Like Fire (2002), a collection of poems in English and Jamaican patois; and more recently, Whoop an'Shout! (2003).
She is also a book editor,having edited several collections of poetry such as On a Camel to the Moon and other poems about journeys (2001) and One River, Many Creeks: poems from all around the world (2003). Her children's novel, Surprising Joy, was published in 2003.Valerie Bloom has been awarded an Honorary Masters Degree from the University of Kent, and lives in Kent. Her latest books are The Tribe and A Soh Life Goh, both published in 2008.
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