Jean D'Costa

Jean D'Costa studied at University of the West Indies and University College London. The recorded working language is Jamaican Patois and English. Employment is recorded with Hamilton College. Works named in the authority record are Escape to Last Man Peak.

• Name — Jean D'Costa • Birth Name — Jean Constance Creary • Born — 13 January 1937 • Birthplace — St. Andrew, Colony of Jamaica, British Empire • Occupation — Professor, linguist • Language — English, Jamaican Creole • Education — University College of the West Indies Oxford University • Genre — Children's literature • Spouse — David D'Costa • Awards — Silver Musgrave Medal (1994)

Jean Constance Creary was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, the youngest of three children to parents who were school teachers. After retirement, her father was ordained an Anglican minister. The Crearys moved to Kingston in December, 1944, where she attended Whitfield Town elementary school (1945-1948), but she and her siblings spent many school holidays in St. James and Trelawny. In 1949 she attended St. Hilda's High School in Brown's Town, St. Ann as a government scholar. In 1955 she spent two transformative terms at St. Hugh's High School where she was advised to pursue the English Honors degree at University College of the West Indies. She earned a scholarship for a bachelor's degree in English literature and language at UCWI and then a master's degree in literature at Oxford University.

In 1962, after Oxford, she returned to teach Old English and linguistics at University College of the West Indies. She also served as a consultant to Jamaica's Ministry of Education on education in Jamaica in the newly independent country, and served on various education committees. D'Costa continued her creative writing while teaching and consulting. Her two most popular novels, Sprat Morrison (1972) and Escape to Last Man Peak (1976), have been used in schools throughout Jamaica and the Caribbean region. Her novels are geared primarily towards children aged 11 to 13. She researched and wrote extensively on Jamaican creole culture., and published handbooks for service agencies in Jamaica, including the Kingston office of the United States Peace Corps. In 1980, D'Costa received a professorship at Hamilton College where she stayed until 1998. She taught Old English, Caribbean literature, creative writing, and linguistics.

Writing for children on the cusp of teenhood, D'Costa addresses "their need to relate to actuality... and their need to retain some of the comforting illusions of childhood". To satisfy the latter need, she draws from Jamaican folklore and oral traditions for the plots, themes, and tone of her works. Prominent in Caribbean folklore are "duppy stories", in which ghosts or unsettled spirits return to haunt the land of the living. In her third novel, Voice in the Wind, for example, D'Costa addresses children's perceptions about death and the supernatural. She also references the oral tales that were traditionally told "at wakes and nine-nights". D'Costa paints a vivid picture of historical and contemporary Jamaican countryside. D'Costa often uses Jamaican Creole for dialogue alongside Standard English. Her use of language, together with her understanding that her works are models for children's own literary attempts, makes her books natural subjects for classroom discussion. Sprat Morrison has been required reading in the "first grade" of Jamaican high schools since 1972, while Escape to Last Man Peak and Voice in the Wind are assigned by many teachers. Students have corresponded with D'Costa and she has accepted invitations to speak in schools. Her works have been lauded for preserving and conveying Jamaican speech rhythms and dialect.

D'Costa retired from Hamilton College in 1998, with the title of professor emeritus. She married David D'Costa, a journalist, in 1967. They relocated to Florida in 1997.

* * * * * • (2nd edition, 1990)

• (with Velma Pollard)

* * * • (with Jack Berry)