Olive Senior is a poet, fiction writer, journalist, editor and one of Canada’s most internationally recognized and acclaimed authors. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 1987 for her fiction collection Summer Lightning and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for her poetry collection Over the Roofs of the World, her body of work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories, and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture. Last year her poetry collection Shell (Insomniac/4a.m. Books) was short-listed for the Canadian League of Poets' Pat Lowther Award.

Olive Senior is regarded as a distinctive voice in West Indian literature. Critics have praised her reproduction of authentic Jamaican Creole in her written work, as well as her insightful exploration of such issues as identity, cultural nationalism, class stratification, and the oppressive impact of religion on women and the poor. She lives in Toronto and teaches at the Humber School for Writers.

 TSAR Publications will re-issue Olive Senior’s short story collection, Arrival of the Snake-Woman, in October 2009 and Cormorant Books has contracted to bring out her first novel, Dancing Lessons, in Spring 2011.