John, Marie-Elena

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John, Marie-Elena

PERSONAL:

Born in Antigua; married; children: two. Education: Graduate of City College of New York; Columbia University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC; Antigua.

CAREER:

Africa development specialist, 1990s.

WRITINGS:

Unburnable (novel), Amistad Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Marie-Elena John was born in Antigua and graduated from City College of New York, where she was that school's first black female valedictorian. She continued her studies at Columbia University, with a concentration on economic and political development, then worked for nonprofit organizations in Africa, focusing on human rights and democracy issues and particularly on the absence of women's property rights.

John's debut novel, Unburnable, was described as "superb" by Black Issues Book Review contributor Denise M. Doig, who added that John "touches on almost every aspect of the African Diaspora: colonization, class struggles, immigration, internalized racism, ancestral traditions and religion, to name a few." The story of three generations of women, it revolves around the discovery of the dark histories of her mother and grandmother by contemporary character Lillian, who suffered a breakdown when first faced with the past.

The novel switches from Lillian in her native Dominica and Washington, DC, where she works, to an earlier time on the island, revealing the characters of her foremothers. She returns with Teddy, an historian, to search for the truth after leaving Dominica more than twenty years earlier. Library Journal reviewer Eleanor J. Bader described the novel as "a page-turner, melding magical realism with historical fact and fascinating social observations."