Michelle Cliff
Michelle Cliff
Michelle Carla Cliff was a Jamaican-American author whose notable works included Abeng (1985), No Telephone to Heaven (1987), and Free Enterprise (1993).
"The landscapes that are important to me are those that I have internalized. Those I carry within myself. Certainly my homeland of Jamaica, the photographic impressions of childhood, the witnessing of great natural beauty and great human tragedy. I always wanted to know why these two things coexisted—naive perhaps but then I was a child. (2010)"
"Neptune. Long Branch. Navesink. Sea Girt. Manasquan. Atlantic Highlands. Pinball. Boardwalks. Salt-water taffy. "Dont dwell on the past so."
"I pick up the New York Times sometime in 1992 and find your name. My heart catches. We are twenty years from a summer filled with each other, and now I hear you laugh, and I sound foolishly romantic, now death is around us. The first winnowing, a doctor said, cold. And if she is right, who will be left standing? This feels like a rout."
