Valerie Bloom
Valerie Bloom MBE (born 1956) is a Jamaican-born poet and novelist based in the UK.
Valerie Bloom
- Name
- Valerie Bloom
- Born
- c. 1956
- Birthplace
- Clarendon Parish, Jamaica
- Occupation
- Poet, novelist
- Education
- University of Kent at Canterbury
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7911244 · wikipedia · Valerie Bloom
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Valerie Bloom • Honorific Suffix — MBE • Born — c. 1956 • Birthplace — Clarendon Parish, Jamaica • Occupation — Poet, novelist • Education — University of Kent at Canterbury
Documentary record
Valerie Bloom (born 1956) is described as an author in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. The birth of Valerie Bloom is recorded in 1956.
Early life
Early life
Born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, Bloom moved to England in 1979. She attended the University of Kent at Canterbury and earned an honours degree and was later awarded an honorary master's degree. She currently lives in Kent.
Documentary record
Place of activity recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: Kent.
Works
Works
Bloom has published several collections, the most recent of which is The River's A Singer. Her first collection was Touch Mi, Tell Mi, published by Bogle-L'Ouverture in 1983, and this was followed by Duppy Jamboree (Cambridge University Press, 1992), Let Me Touch the Sky, The World Is Sweet and Hot like Fire. She has also edited a number of collections, including One River Many Creeks and A Twist in the Tale. Bloom has written lyrics for world jazz ensemble Grand Union Orchestra, including "Can't Chain Up Me Mind" on their 1989 live show and album, Freedom Calls. The show featuring Bloom's lyrics was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in January 1990. Her first novel was Surprising Joy (2003). Her next novel, The Tribe, was published by Macmillan Children's Books in 2007. She writes poetry both in English and Jamaican Patois (and has been referred to as "a successor to Louise Bennett"). Many of her performances include a "crash course" in patois for audience members unfamiliar with the language. She has performed widely throughout the UK and abroad and has appeared on many radio and TV programmes. In 2005, she made a series of three programmes focusing on Jamaican poetry for BBC Radio 4 entitled Island Voices.
Poetry
Poetry
• Touch Mi! Tell Mi! (Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 1983; revised edition 1990)
Novels
Novels
• Surprising Joy (Macmillan Children's Books, 2003; paperback) • The Tribe (Macmillan Children's Books, 2007; paperback)
Anthologies (edited)
Anthologies (edited)
• On a Camel to the Moon, and Other Poems About Journeys (Belitha Press [now Chrysalis Books], 2001) • One River, Many Creeks: Poems from All Around the World (Macmillan Children's Books, 2003; paperback) • A Twist in the Tale: Surprising Poems Chosen by Valerie Bloom (Macmillan Children's Books, 2005)
Guides
Guides
• On Good Form – Poetry Made Simple (Apples and Snakes, 2005)
For children — poetry and picture books
• Duppy Jamboree (Cambridge University Press, 1992) • Ackee, Breadfruit, Callaloo: An Edible Alphabet, illustrated by Kim Harley (Bogle-L’Ouverture and Macmillan Caribbean, 1999) • Fruits, illustrated by David Axtell (Macmillan Children's Books, 1997; 2000) • Let Me Touch the Sky: Selected Poems for Children (Macmillan Children's Books, 2000) • When Granny (Macmillan Children's Books, 2000) • The World Is Sweet: Poems (Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2000; paperback) • New Baby, illustrated by David Axtell (Macmillan Children's Books, 2001) • Hot Like Fire and Other Poems (Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2002; paperback) • Whoop an' Shout: Poems (Macmillan Children's Books, 2003; paperback) • Jaws and Claws and Things With Wings: Poems, illustrated by Matt Robertson (HarperCollins, 2013) • Mighty Mountains, Swirling Seas, illustrated by Alessandra Cimatoribus (HarperCollins, 2015)
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q7911244: Valerie Bloom
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Valerie Bloom”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards and honours
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Valerie Bloom, revision 1371513415 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Valerie Bloom b. 1956", The Poetry Archive.
- 2.Jeffrey Wainwright, Poetry: The Basics (2004), 2nd edition, Routledge, 2011, p. 21.
- 3."Valerie Bloom", British Council — Literature.
- 4.Bloomsbury.com - Children's Authors.
- 5.Valerie Bloom - Victoria and Albert Museum.
- 6.Valerie Bloom page at PanMacmillan.
- 7.Valerie Bloom - Poetry Archive
- 8.Jazz, All About. Grand Union Orchestra: Music and Movement article @ All About Jazz. All About Jazz. 3 April 2012.
- 9.BBC Radio 3 - 13 January 1990 - BBC Genome. genome.ch.bbc.co.uk.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q7911244: Valerie BloomWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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