In this remarkable collection, Althea Romeo-Mark uses poetry like a lance, a magnifying glass, and a soothing balm. Her verse gives the reader a close-up view of life as an immigrant in the Caribbean and details her experiences in England after fleeing the violence of the Liberian civil war.
Romeo-Mark grew up in the West Indies, where her family drifted from island to island looking for work. In a series of gripping poems, she takes us inside the uneasy tapestry of immigrant cultures that form the Caribbean islands: a pastiche of hunger and oppression that makes survival a daily struggle.
She goes on to explore the problems encountered by women in a society that is male dominated, unstable, and unjust; by immigrants displaced from their homes and their ways of life; and by families committed to each other no matter what comes.
Divided topically, The Nakedness of New also includes three revealing personal essays and a section focused on her maternal grandmother, a controversial personality who held the family together.
Through it all run the themes of resiliency, heart, and dedication to living-all things found in ordinary people if only you take the time to look for them.
About the Author: Althea Romeo-Mark was born in Antigua and grew up in the US Virgin Islands. She has been an educator in Saint Thomas, Liberia, London, and Switzerland. An internationally recognized poet and short-story writer, she has won many literary awards and prizes in competitions and conferences around the world.
She is the author of five other collections of poetry, most recently If Only the Dust Would Settle (2009); her poems and short stories have been published in eighteen countries. She has lived in Switzerland since 1991.
